background chronology 1957
May Fin de Copenhague by Asger Jorn, Paris.
First screening of Howls for Sade in London. 22 Potlatch #28, information bulletin of the Lettrist International, Paris.
June Report on the Construction of Situations & the International Situationist Tendency's Conditions of Organization & Action, by Guy Debord, Paris. The verso reads: 'This report, presented to the members of the Lettrist International, the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus & the London Psychogeographical Committee as a platform for discussion between these organizations & as a document for their propaganda, is not to be sold under any circumstances.' Against Functionalism by Asger Jorn, Paris. Exhibition by Arnal & Jorn at the Galerie Rive gauche in Paris. Publication of Jacques Prévert's Peintures de Jorn (Jorn's Paintings). July 27 to 28 Founding Conference of the Situationist International (SI) at Cosio d'Arroscia, Italy. Participants: Michèle Bernstein, Guy-Ernest Debord (Lettrist International). Giuseppe Pinot Gallizio, Asger Jorn, Walter Olmo, Piero Simondo, Elena Verrone (International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus), Ralph Rumney (London Psychogeographical Committee).
'On 28 July, the Cosio d'Arroscia conference decided on the complete unification of the groups represented [...] & — by a vote of 5 to 1, with 2 abstentions — on the constitution of a Situationist International on the platform defined by the publications prepared for the conference.' (Introductory note to Potlatch #29) SEPTEMBER Guy Debord begins work on Mémoires, a book 'composed entirely of prefabricated elements.'
November 5 Potlatch #29, information bulletin of the Lettrist International, Paris. This chronology has been adapted & expanded from Jean-Jacques Raspaud & Jean-Pierre Voyer, L'Internationale Situationniste: Chronologie, bibliographie, protagonistes (avec un index des noms insulté) (Paris: Champ Libre, 1972); Christophe Bourseiller, Vie et mort de Guy Debord (Paris: Plon, 1999); & Guy Debord, Correspondance (volumes 1, 2 & 3) (Paris: Arthème Fayard, 1999 , 2001 & 2003).
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1957 --
background > chronology >
1957
May 1957
Fin de Copenhague by Asger Jorn, Paris.
First screening of Howls for Sade in London.
22 Potlatch #28, information bulletin of the Lettrist International, Paris.
June 1957
Report on the Construction of Situations & the International Situationist Tendency's Conditions of Organization & Action, by Guy Debord, Paris. The verso reads: 'This report, presented to the members of the Lettrist International, the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus & the London Psychogeographical Committee as a platform for discussion between these organizations & as a document for their propaganda, is not to be sold under any circumstances.'
Against Functionalism by Asger Jorn, Paris.
Exhibition by Arnal & Jorn at the Galerie Rive gauche in Paris. Publication of Jacques Prévert's Peintures de Jorn (Jorn's Paintings).
July 1957
27 to 28 Founding Conference of the Situationist International (SI) at Cosio d'Arroscia, Italy. Participants: Michèle Bernstein, Guy-Ernest Debord (Lettrist International). Giuseppe Pinot Gallizio, Asger Jorn, Walter Olmo, Piero Simondo, Elena Verrone (International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus), Ralph Rumney (London Psychogeographical Committee).
'On 28 July, the Cosio d'Arroscia conference decided on the complete unification of the groups represented [...] & — by a vote of 5 to 1, with 2 abstentions — on the constitution of a Situationist International on the platform defined by the publications prepared for the conference.' (Introductory note to Potlatch #29)
This chronology has been adapted & expanded from Jean-Jacques Raspaud & Jean-Pierre Voyer, L'Internationale Situationniste: Chronologie, bibliographie, protagonistes (avec un index des noms insulté) (Paris: Champ Libre, 1972); Christophe Bourseiller, Vie et mort de Guy Debord (Paris: Plon, 1999); & Guy Debord, Correspondance (volumes 1, 2 & 3) (Paris: Arthème Fayard, 1999 , 2001 & 2003).
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1958 --
background > chronology >
1958
January 1958
1 Nervenruh! Keine Experimente! (Stay Calm! No Experiments!), the first manifesto of the SI's German section, signed by Asger Jorn & Hans Platschek, Munich.
25 to 26 2nd SI Conference in Paris. Participants: Michèle Bernstein, Guy-Ernest Debord, Asger Jorn, Abdelhafid Khatib, Giuseppe Pinot Gallizio.
Exclusions of Walter Olmo, Piero Simondo & Elena Verrone of the Italian Section.
To the Producers of Modern Art, a 'filoform tract' by the French section.
A New Cultural Theater of Operations, tract by the French section.
March 1958 15 March to 5 April Exhibition by Jorn at Rive Gauche Gallery, Paris.
May 1958
Rapporto sulla costruzione delle situazioni, Italian edition of Guy Debord's Report on the Construction of Situations, with an introduction by Pinot Gallizio, Turin.
'Interview with Asger Jorn' by Walter Korun, on the meaning of the changes in experimental art before & after Cobra (1948-1951) in Kunstmeridiaan (Taptoe 58), volume V number 4-5-6, devoted to the avant-garde gallery Taptoe in Brussels.
30 First exhibition of industrial paintings by Giuseppe Pinot Gallizio, assisted by Giors Melanotte, Notizie Gallery, Turin. Elogio di Pinot Gallizio (In Praise of Pinot Gallizio), by Michèle Bernstein.
June 1958
Second edition of Debord's Report on the Construction of Situations, Brussels.
Guy Debord & Michèle Bernstein meet Henri Lefebvre in the street.
Internationale Situationniste #1. Central bulletin published by the sections of the Situationist International. Editor: G.-E. Debord. Editorial committee: Mahomed Dahou, Giuseppe Pinot Gallizio, Maurice Wyckaert.
July1958
4 Difendete la libertà ovunque (Defend Freedom Everywhere), pamphlet by the SI's Italian section protesting the internment in a Milanese lunatic asylum of the 'otherwise completely uninteresting' painter Nunzio Van Gugliemi, who has impulsively damaged a painting by Raphael (The Coronation of the Virgin) by pasting the tract 'Long live the Italian revolution! Down with the clerical government!' to its protective glass.
7 Stand By Van Gugliemi!, pamphlet in French by Asger Jorn on behalf of the SI, Paris.
8 Second showing of Pinot-Gallizio's exhibition of industrial painting, Montenapoleone Gallery, Milan.
Reissue of Michèle Bernstein, Elogio di Pinot Gallizio.
Asger Jorn presents a conference on industrial painting in Turin.
September1958
3 September to mid-October Exhibition by Jorn at Van de Loo Gallery, Munich.
Constant initiates a debate on Asger Jorn's ideas ('On our means & perspectives,' I.S. #2).
Publication of Pour la Forme: ébauche d'une méthodologie des arts (In Favor of Form: Toward a Methodology of the Arts), a collection of texts by Asger Jorn written & published in several languages, notably 'Image & form' (1954), 'Form & structure' (1956), 'Structure & change' (1956), 'Against functionalism' (1957), & 'The situationists & automation' (1958). Published by the Situationist International, Paris.
This chronology has been adapted & expanded from Jean-Jacques Raspaud & Jean-Pierre Voyer, L'Internationale Situationniste: Chronologie, bibliographie, protagonistes (avec un index des noms insulté) (Paris: Champ Libre, 1972); Christophe Bourseiller, Vie et mort de Guy Debord (Paris: Plon, 1999); & Guy Debord, Correspondance (volumes 1, 2 & 3) (Paris: Arthème Fayard, 1999 , 2001 & 2003).
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1959 -- Internationale Situationniste 1959
background > chronology >
May 1959
4 Exhibition of around thirty maquettes for Constant's spatial constructions at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
6-28 Modifications, an exhibition of 'some twenty pictures, partially repainted' by Asger Jorn, at the Rive Gauche Gallery, Paris. Jorn publishes Détourned Painting for the occasion.
'This exhibition, which proposed to "demonstrate that the preferred sustenance of painting is painting," was a strong illustration of situationist theses on détournement, in our opinion the essential mode of action in the transitional culture.' (Potlatch #30)
13 Giuseppe Pinot Gallizio covers the walls, floor & ceiling of Drouin Gallery to create a 'cavern of anti-matter' out of 145 meters of rolls of industrial painting.
'Unfortunately, the poor presentation of this "attempt at the construction of an ambiance" prevented the efficacious application of industrial painting already seen in Italy & Germany.' (Potlatch #30)
Constant, first monograph published by the Bibliothèque d'Alexandria, Paris.
June 1959
Tape recorded conference by the Dutch section at the Stedelijk Museum.
July
15 Potlatch #30, internal newsletter of the Situationist International, new series #1, Amsterdam.
Autumn 1959 (sept or october, not Aug & not Nov)
First contact with Socialisme ou Barbarie.
August 1959
Article by Constant on the unification of the arts, their integration into everyday life & unitary urbanism in issue 6 of the journal Forum, Amsterdam.
In New York, Alexander Trocchi completes his novel Cain's Book, which will appear on 25 April 1960.
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1961 --
1961 January 1961
6 to 8 Second session of the Central Council of the SI in Paris. Participants: Debord, Jorn, Kotànyi, Nash, Prem (standing in for Sturm), Wyckaert.
Study of the construction of an experimental city (Utopolis).
January Manifesto, manifesto on the festival, Spur group (Sturm, Prem, Fischer, Kunzelmann, Zimmer), Munich.
Avantgarde ist unerwünscht! (The Avant-Garde is Undesirable!), tract by the German (Lothar Fischer, Dieter Kunzelmann, Heimrad Prem, Helmut Sturm, Hans-Peter Zimmer), Scandinavian (Asger Jorn, Stefan Larsson, Katja Lindell, Jørgen Nash) & Belgian (Maurice Wyckaert) sections, Munich.
January to February 1961 Editing of Guy Debord's film Critique of Separation.
One reel (20 min), 35 mm, black & white. Produced by the Dansk-Fransk Experimentalfilms Kompagni & Laboratoire GTC. Sound recorded at Marignan studio. Cinematographer: André Mrugalski. Editor: Chantal Delattre. Assistant director: Bernard Davidson. Script: Claude Brabant. Grip: Bernard Largemain.
Music: Couperin, March of the Champagne Regiment; Bodin de Boismortier, Allegro movement. Op. 37 — Concerto in E Minor in five parts.
Voice-over: Caroline Rittener, Guy Debord.
March1961
10 Guy Debord draws up the general plan for the Situationist Library at the Silkeborg Kunstmuseum, Denmark.
May 1961 5 Guy Debord breaks with the Pouvoir Ouvrier group of Socialisme ou barbarie.
17 Perspectives for Conscious Changes in Everyday Life, speech delivered by tape recorder by Guy Debord before a conference of the Group for Research on Everyday Life, convened by Henri Lefebvre at the CNRS Center for Sociological Studies.
Alexander Trocchi escapes the persecutions of the New York police by secretly crossing the Canadian border, then returning to Europe.
June1961 Spur #5, journal of the German section of the SI, Munich. Special issue on unitary urbanism. Editor: Zimmer. Editorial committee: Prem, Sturm, Kunzelmann. Threats of seizure fail to prevent the publication of this issue.
August1961 Internationale Situationniste #6. Central bulletin published by the sections of the Situationist International. Editor: G.-E. Debord. Editorial committee (Central Council of the SI): Debord, Kotànyi, Nash, Sturm (resignation of Jacques Ovadia, no section).
Spur #6, journal of the German section of the SI, Drakabygget, Sweden. Editorial committee: Helmut Sturm, Heimrad Prem, Hans-Peter Zimmer, Dieter Kunzelmann, Katja & Jørgen Nash.
28 to 30 Fifth SI Conference in Göteborg, Sweden. Participants: Guy Debord, Ansgar Elde, Jacqueline de Jong, Attila Kotànyi, Dieter Kunzelmann, Steffan Larsson, Jeppesen Victor Martin, Jørgen Nash, Heimrad Prem, Gretel Stadler, Hardy Strid, Helmut Sturm, Raoul Vaneigem, Hans-Peter Zimmer.
Jacqueline de Jong & Attila Kotànyi are added to the editorial committee of Spur.
Hans-Peter Zimmer is appointed to the Bureau of Unitary Urbanism in Brussels.
Designation of a new Central Council composed of Debord, Elde, Kotànyi, Kunzelmann, Lausen, Nash & Vaneigem.
September196113 Resignation of André Frankin, no section.
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1962 --
1962
January 1962 Bilingual tract in English & French, criticizing the announcement by the Civil Defense Letter Committee that appeared in the international edition of The New York Times on 30 December 1961, regarding fallout shelters & announcing the publication, by the European Committee for the Pursuit of Human Expansion, of the journal Mutant for Spring 1962. The tract has in actual fact been written by Guy Debord & Asger Jorn.
Spur #7, journal of the German section of the SI, Munich. Editor: Lothar Fischer.
March 1962 15 Split by the 'Nashists' (Ansgar Elde, Steffan Larsson, Katja Lindell, Jørgen Nash & Hardy Strid of the Scandinavian section,) as well as Jacqueline de Jong of the Dutch section, announced by a tract backdated to 13 February 1962 & signed by de Jong, Nash & Elde.
23 Proclamation from l'Internationale situationniste! tract in English, signed on behalf of the Central Council of the SI by Debord, Kotànyi, Lausen & Vaneigem all followers of Nash & Elde to be enemies of the SI & delegating J.V. Martin all powers to represent the SI in Scandinavia.
Le Livre de Caïn, French translation by Aanda Golem of Alexander Trocchi's novel, Cain's Book, Paris.
May 1962 4 Kunzelmann, Prem, Sturm & Zimmer, responsible for the journal Spur, are given a five & a half month suspended sentence.
June 1962 25 Déclaration sur le procès contre l'Internationale situationniste en Allemagne fédérale (Declaration on the Trial of the Situationist International in West Germany), tract signed by Michèle Bernstein (France), J.V. Martin (Denmark), Alexander Trocchi (Great Britain) & Raoul Vaneigem (Belgium), Paris.
New Disfigurations, exhibition of twenty-four paintings modified by Asger Jorn, with a text by Jacques Prévert (À Jorn [To Jorn]), Rive Gauche Gallery, Paris.
Reprint of the second issue of the journal Internationale Situationniste.
July 5 Uwe Lausen is incarcerated after being sentenced to three weeks in prison for — among other things — blaspheming 'the honor of God.'
16 Das Unbehagen in der Kultur (à propos de la condamnation du situationniste Uwe Lausen) (The Malaise in Culture: The Imprisonment of Uwe Lausen), tract in French signed on behalf of the SI by Debord & Vaneigem, Paris.
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1966 -- situationist sites debord vaneigem anarchist archives http://www.well.com/user/lapalma/debord.html
http://www.butterfly.net/neoism/squares/situation_index.html
This site I stumbled on today looks quite new:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/8195/
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/8195/blasts/blasts.htm
http://www.sff.net/people/bruce-baugh/gamelab/situationist.htp
http://www.mediafilter.org/ZK/Conf/Conf_Email/November.24.1996.10.49.56
http://www.unpopular.demon.co.uk/
http://www.cat.org.au/spectacular/
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/
http://www.disinfo.com/rev/rev_situationist.html
the Lettrist & Situationist archive
- SI journal / pre-situ - debord - vaneigem - graphics - misc -
http://www.mital-u.ch/Dada/index.html
This one collects SI material from all over the net; you might contact for links to you:
http://wormhole.org/IOunit/p/situationist.html
http://wormhole.org/IOunit/p/situationist.html
http://204.96.36.43/firedemo/w/wd8374/wf202.gif
1968 -- Maurice Brinton MAI 68 Die Subversion der Beleidigten MAY 68 MaD Flugschrift
Zweifellos war dies die bedeutendste revolutionäre Erhebung in Westeuropa seit den Tagen der Pariser Commune. Hunderttausende von Studenten haben sich regelrechte Schlachten mit der Polizei geliefert. Neun Millionen Arbeiter standen im Streik. Die rote Fahne der Revolte flatterte über besetzten Fabriken, Universitäten, Baustellen, Werften, Haupt- und Realschulen, Grubeneingängen, Bahnhöfen, Kaufhäusern, Überseeflugzeugen, Theatern, Hotels. Die Pariser Oper, das Folies Bergères und das Gebäude des Nationalen Rates für Wissenschaftliche Studien wurden besetzt, ebenso wie das Hauptquartier der französischen Fußballföderation, mit dem klaren Ziel, "normale Fußballer davon abzuhalten, Spaß am Fußball zu haben".
http://www.physik.uni-regensburg.de/~sij17370/situ/mai68.html
1968 --
1968
January 1968
26 At the faculty of Nanterre, dean Grappin appeals to the police to reprimand a demonstration by anarchists & Enragés against the presence of plain-clothes police on campus. The police are chased off & cars are set alight.
29 En attendant la cybernétique, les flics (Waiting for Cybernetics, the Cops), fly-poster denouncing "Billy-club Grappin" by the Nanterre Enragés.
March 1968
19 A Gust of Wind through the Japanese Apple Tree, tract by the Enragés against the "meta-Stalinist" Henri Lefebvre.
May 1968
6 Gut Rage!, tract by the Enragés.
10 The Castle is Burning! Address to the Council of the University of Paris, tract by René Riesel.
The situationists participate in the night of the barricades in the rue Gay-Lussac.
14 Constitution of the Enragés-Situationist International Committee in the Occupied Sorbonne.
15 Minimum Definition of Revolutionary Organizations, tract by the Enragés-Situationist International Committee.
The Enragés-Situationist International Committee adds its support & participates in the Sorbonne Occupation Committee.
De l'I.S. Paris aux membres de l'I.S., aux camarades qui se declarés en accord avec nos thèses (From the SI in Paris to the Members of the SI & the Comrades who have Declared Themselves in Accord with our Theses), circular by Guy Debord, Mustapha Khayati, Raoul Vaneigem & René Viénet.
16 At 3.30pm, the Sorbonne Occupation Committee "calls for the immediate occupation of every factory in France & the formation of workers councils."
Vigilance!, tract by the Sorbonne Occupation Committee, 4.30pm.
Watch Out!, tract by the Occupation Committee of the Popular & Autonomous Sorbonne University, 6.30pm.
Slogans to be Spread Now by Every Means, tract by the Occupation Committee of the Popular & Autonomous Sorbonne University, 7pm.
Situationist International Circular, Paris, 10.30pm.
17 Constitution of the Council for Maintaining the Occupations (CMDO), composed of a dozen situationists & Enragés as well as workers, a dozen high-school & university students, & a dozen other councilists without any particular allegiances.
The CMDO publishes six posters: Down with the Spectacle-Commodity Society; Abolition of Class Society; Occupation of the Factories; End of the University; Power to the Workers Councils; What Can the Revolutionary Movement Do Now? Everything. What Does It Become in the Hands of the Parties & the Unions? Nothing. What Does the Movement Want? The Realization of a Classless Society through the Power of the Workers Councils.
30 Address to All Workers, tract signed by the Enragés-Situationist International Committee & the Council for Maintaining the Occupations.
June
8 It's Not Over!, CMDO tract..
15 The CMDO dissolves itself.
The situationists & most compromised students go into exile in Belgium.
Asger Jorn completes four posters in homage to May 68: Long Live the Passionate Revolution of Creative Intelligence; Smash the Frame that Stifles the Image; Support the Students Who Should Study & Learn Freely; No Power of Imagination Without Powerful Images.
July 1968
September
Reply to Murray Bookchin Concerning His Theories of the Recent French 'Revolution', tract by the American section of the SI, New York.
An Open Letter to Radical Action Cooperative, Students for a Democratic Society, Students, Faculty, Others Engaged by University Life, tract by the American section of the SI, New York.
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1991 -- En 1976, il retourne en Espagne puis se fixe ensuite en
France où il meurt le 10 mai 1991.
Le 24 août 1919, naissance de Víctor GARCIA, (de son véritable nom: Tomás Germinal GARCIA
IBARS). Militant anarcho-syndicaliste espagnol, écrivain, traducteur et historien du mouvement
anarchiste international.
Très tôt orphelin de père, il commence à travailler à 12 ans dans l'industrie textile à Barcelone et
milite à partir de 1933, à la CNT. En août 1936, il forme avec d'autres jeunes libertaires comme
Abel Paz, Liberto Sarrau, etc. le groupe acrate "Los Quijotes del Ideal" qui s'oppose à la
collaboration gouvernementale. Il prend part ensuite aux combats sur le front mais refusant l'ordre
de militarisation il rejoint une collectivité près de Lérida où il participe à la création des JJLL
(Jeunesses Libertaires). De retour au front au sein de la 26e division, il y est blessé. En 1939, réfugié
en France, il est interné dans différents camps de concentration. Il intègre ensuite un réseau de la
résistance. En mars 1944, il est arrêté par la milice de Pétain, puis renvoyé au camp du Vernet, mais
il parvient à s'évader lors son transfert en train vers le camp de la mort de Dachau (Allemagne).
Les 8 et 9 AVRIL / APRIL 8 1945, il participe à Toulouse au congrès de la Federación Ibérica de Juventudes Libertarias (FIJL) (Fédération Ibérique des
Jeunesses Libertaires) et assumera ensuite la charge d'administrateur du journal "Ruta" et de
"Solidaridad Obrera" puis de secrétaire de la IJA (Jeunesse Anarchiste Internationale). En juillet
1946, il assiste au congrès de Faenza en Italie puis rejoint la lutte en Espagne. Mais il est arrêté par
la police franquiste et emprisonné à la "Modelo" de Barcelone. Il en sera libéré sous conditions en
1948, mais trop compromis dans la lutte clandestine, il quitte alors l'Espagne pour le Venézuela.
Durant les années cinquante il effectue un périple (qui lui vaudra le surmom de "Marco Polo de
l'Anarchisme") à travers tous les pays d'Amérique Latine. Il visite ensuite le Japon, la Chine, l'Inde,
la Turquie, l'Egypte, l'Irak, l'Israel, la Grèce, l'Italie, l'Allemagne, la Hollande, la France. En 1961, il
retourne à Caracas où il dirige un Centre culturel d'étutes sociales et assure la charge de secrétaire
de la CNT du Vénézuela jusqu'en 1966. En 1976, il retourne en Espagne puis se fixe ensuite en
France où il meurt le 10 mai 1991.
Infatigable militant, il est l'auteur de nombreux articles, dont ses recits de voyages publiés dans la
presse libertaire. Traducteur (en castillan) de "l'Encyclopédie Anarchiste" de Sébastien Faure, il
est aussi un important penseur et historien: "Antologia del anarcho-sindicalismo","Museihushugi,
el anarchismo japonés", etc.
http://ytak.club.fr/aout4.html
1993 -- Build to Break Silkscreen. Height: 41.9 cm Width: 29.2 cm. USA, 1992.
Produced by the D.A.C./Dayton A.Y.F. (Anarchist Youth Federation), this poster was created to promote a midwest anarchist gathering held at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio in May of 1993. The conference was a four day event which
included workshops, entertainment, demonstrations, & various other activities. It was well
attended by both students from the Antioch community & by anarchists from all parts of the
midwest. The slogan of the conference, "Build to Break," imparts the anarchist's desire to
destruct hierarchical sytems of power & societal control & replace them with cooperative
non-bureaucratic forms of association.
http://www.ipl.org/exhibit/Labadie/north_america.html
1994 -- EMAIL:
hello
i'm still extremely happy that my second son Zeno is still on the daily bleed for June 19th. I've
added some pictures of him from april this year & also one picture of an action held some months ago against the war on Iraq. A group of people (among them some anarchists) created this loose group "Manneken Peace Not War" referring to the symbol of Brussels : the world famous statue of a
young boy pissing (legend tells us that he was pissing on the fuse of the bombs placed by attackers of Brussels long time ago). In april this year for three days Manneken Pis was dressed up opposing war.
If ever you want to add my other son to the Daily Bleed : Aimo was born of the First of May 1994 & apart from the fact that i liked the sound of his name, as an anarchist i thought it nice to let his name begin with an "A".
Kind greetings
Erik
--
============================================================================
Ze Sprout
1996 -- 1996 May 6 - May 18 (Portoferraio): Peter Gori & Portoferraio the city & the myth. Day of studies 1996 May 4 (Piombino): Peter Gori & the prophets of the freed world. Relatori: Maurizio Antonioli, Lorenzo Gestri, Ivan Tognarini, Michele Lungonelli, Alexander Canestrelli, Gianfranco Benedictines, Giovanni Contini, Sergio Red. Seminaries 1996 March 4 - you open them 22 (Pisa): The body & the shadow. 4 conferences on the Living Theatre. Relatori: Being worth Fernando Mastropasqua, Anna Maria Monteverdi, Cristina. 1996 maggio 6 - maggio 18
(Portoferraio): Pietro Gori e Portoferraio la città e il mito.
Giornata di studi
1996 maggio 4
(Piombino): Pietro Gori e i profeti del liberato mondo. Relatori: Maurizio Antonioli, Lorenzo Gestri, Ivan Tognarini, Michele Lungonelli, Alessandro Canestrelli, Gianfranco Benedettini, Giovanni Contini, Sergio Rossi.
Seminari http://www.bfs.it/crono_eventi.html
2002 -- ADD BLOOD UPDATES
Best wishes,
Robert Lichtman
...and here's the poem....
For Dick Ellington, Berkeley Typesetter
You were a funny, knobby old man with a bald head
who knew everything,
but that wasn't impressive or even unusual.
Knowing everything was just part of you,
like your house where you went thru my books
on the kitchen table & we had to move the butter
and the cat tried to tell you you hadn't fed it (you had)
so you told me all about the cat.
And all about the Wobblies.
And science fiction writers & various wars.
I let it all flow over me, no more listening
than the flowers outside your window listen to the sunlight,
but no less either.
Once a hummingbird flew by,
which reminded you of another story.
You were always in a good mood
and I listened to your eyes twinkle.
I don't even remember what was wrong with your arms;
because they were your arms
they had to be all right.
The only thing that ever seemed ill was your doorbell.
You had a Chinese doorbell which I had to turn
instead of push,
and half the time you were with the machines
and couldn't hear me till I pounded on the door
and you yelled come in.
We both somehow assumed the doorbell would get better
by the next time I visited but it never did.
Even when I came
and you were hooked up to an oxygen tank
you were still mad at that doorbell
and all ready to typeset my book.
I don't quite miss you because I don't quite believe it:
When my next book is ready
I want to take it to that sunny house for typesetting;
we can talk about your dream
of burying Joe Hill's ashes in People's Park.
If you're there I promise:
this time I'll listen.
--- Julia Vinograd
[Originally appeared in Against The Wall, Zeitgest Press,
Oakland CA, 1992, & reprinted with permission of the
author. Julia is a Berkeley “street poet” whose work has
appeared in numerous slim volumes since the mid-'70s.]
2003 -- [b] FW: [BI] Alyce Cresap Date:
Thu, 8 May 2003 17:29:32 -0400 From:
"J Godsey" To: "Biblio"
> From: insider-admin@lists.bookfinder.com
> [mailto:insider-admin@lists.bookfinder.com] On Behalf Of Jeff Rankin
> Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 4:22 PM
> To: insider@lists.bookfinder.com
> Subject: [BI] Alyce Cresap
>
>
> Alyce Cresap died today at 11:58 a.m. EDT. She will be missed.
>
> --Jeff Rankin (her son)
----------------
Re: [b] FW: [BI] Alyce Cresap
Date:
Thu, 08 May 2003 19:54:01 -0400
From:
"Deanna Ramsay"
To:
biblio@bibliophilegroup.com
References:
1
Alyce was suffering from lung cancer. She had a reaction to mildew in
books a few years ago, which caused permanent damage to her lungs,
and has been fighting off a number of respiratory problems for the past
year. The cancer wasn't diagnosed until very recently, & by then it was
much too advanced to do anything about. Alyce declined any sort of
treatment other than palliative care. Her sister, & then later her son Jeff
came to stay with her. She's been remarkably brave about the entire
thing. I'm quite sure I could never have faced my own mortality with as
much grace & fortitude.
I'm going to miss her.
best,
Deanna
> I am sorry to hear about Alyce. She has been a virtual companion of
> ours on Bibliophile for many years, & I feel that the list will be
> missing her contributions to our forum.
Grace & fortitude, with a droll sense of humor to the
very end. I hope that somewhere tonight family & friends are
celebrating Alyce's life, for what better life to celebrate than that of
a booklover. & I hope they know how much she will be missed here in
Bilbiotenango..
Regards,
Bonnie
When you have a moment & want to reminisce about Alyce, go here:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=alyce+cresap
It's kind of comforting that even after we're gone, we'll leave a 'cached'
memory of our activities behind.
AND, she'd have you know that it's not Alyce; it's alyce.
I had the privilege of hanging around with alyce on an alternative list,
BiblioMANIA (now, beekslayers) for seven years. The list has political
overtones, & we all speak our minds & slap each other around and
love each other even though we're all assholes. alyce led the pack. She
knew when to scream injustice, when to punch someone in the nose, and
when to settle back & watch the idiotic game.
A lot of things happen over seven years. I just want to say that it was
my pleasure to know alyce & that I hope some of her rubbed off on me.
She's a beautiful soul, & she'll live on forever through those who she
bumped elbows with, & - I'll betcha - her influence will resound
through our trade as long as any of us can look up & smile, or laugh
at ourselves, or give a gentle nudge in one direction or other when it's
most needed.
Godspeed alyce cresap.
Don Jernigan
The Ink Company
I will remember her always as being the only
Bibliotenangan who quickly came forth to claim membership in
my imaginary 8 & 4 Club, dedicated to those of us who were
active when the Post Office Book Rate was 8 cents the first
pound & 4 cents for each additional.
We mourn her loss while celebrating her life.
~Wynn Loewenthal
Modern First Editions
Sun, 11 May 2003 21:05:21 -0400
From:
David Palmquist
To:
I was sorry to hear of Alyce's death & was afraid it would be sooner
rather than later. I second all the recollections as to her wit, her
wonderful balanced view of the world & her fierce sense of justice.
I actually had the good fortune to meet her. We both live and, of course,
sell books in Columbia County, NY, in the Hudson River Valley. Having
"met" on the Bibliophile list we had some wonderful e-mail exchanges. She
was a wonderful & funny correspondent. For instance, she said she never
went to Wal-Mart & never to the malls in Albany. She would drive that
far only to pick up friends at the airport. We talked about where we kept
our books. Her house was full of books, she said. I mentioned having a
barn (barn in Kinderhook, thus, Kinderbarn Books). She wrote back, "I'd
kill for a barn."
I had a feeling we'd eventually meet. One beautiful Saturday morning about
7 or 8 years ago I was heading for the tag sale books at the local
Cooperative Extension. A tallish, thin woman with long white hair holding
a number of plants was also heading for the books. She made a bee-line for
the best books, as it happened, while I rummaged through junk. I finally
asked if she was a collector & she offered that she sold books on the
Internet. It hit me & I asked, "Are you Alyce?" Yes! Turns out she
always went to the Humane Society tag sale but first bought her seedling
plants. (What discipline! I'd first go for the books, even skip lunch!!)
We talked some more. I had my hands on a clock book & she immediately
offered the name of a dealer who might buy it. She suggested I look
through what books she had in her car, a newer van brimming with books, &
make an offer on whatever I wanted. I helped bring the books & plants to
her car, although she really didn't need the assist.
I would describe her to you as somewhat shy which may surprise you. Her
inner strength came out in her writing & e-mails. I could sense that she
valued her privacy & independence.
A couple of years later we met at a Germantown Library book sale. She
navigated slowly around the tables. Despite her ailments you should know
that she participated actively as an officer in the Germantown town
library, & as I recall was responsible for a good part of the fund
raising & accounting. The library was then housed in a small building
but poised to build & move into a much larger & more serviceable
structure.
Alyce was as generous in person as she was with advice & humor in her
e-mails. Recently, unable to travel as much & move books, she referred a
friend to me who had just sold her house & needed someone to purchase &
clear out 1,000 books. Could I do it, & do it by the next evening? Of
course I would, it was for her friend.
Alyce loved books & the people who buy, read & sell books. All of us
in the virtual community were her friends & neighbors, & we are very
much richer for having known her.
David Palmquist
KINDERBARN BOOKS
Kinderhook, NY
quist@albany.net
2006 -- Réunions publiques :NAMES TO ADD TO BLEED/INDEX
Les intervenants aux nombreuses réunions publiques organisées par le groupe sont le reflet des diverses générations de militants qu'a connues le mouvement anarchiste. Les premières réunions ont été animées par les militants de la première heure de la FA,Il y eut ensuite la génération suivante avec des militants comme Jacky Toublet, Yves Peyraut et depuis quelques années la génération actuelle qui laissera sa place à une suivante. Citons donc des réunions publiques avec , Jacky Toublet
, Yves Peyraut, René Berthier, Elisabeth Claude, Thyde Rosell, Hélène Hernandez, Wally Rosell, Gaetano Manfredonia, Philippe Pelletier, Hugues Lenoir, Jacques Lesage de la Haye, Jean-Pierre Garnier, Gérard Lorne, Benoist Rey, Mathieu Ferré, Charly Bauer, Serge Livrozet, Abel Paz, Jean-Pierre Duteuil, Daniel Cohn-Bendit etc. plus les intervenants à la librairie lautodidacte.org qui sont répertoriés dans la rubrique Archives du site et en tenant compte des oublis que nous essayerons de réparer au fur et à mesure. Les sujets de ces réunions ont bien sûr été très divers, liés à l'histoire, à l'actualité, à des problèmes de société (travail, prison, sexualité etc.), au soutien à des luttes en cours, à des sujets internationaux etc.
TRANSLATED VIA GOOGLE
The speakers with the many public meetings organized by the group are the reflection of the various generations of militants whom knew the anarchistic movement. The first meetings were animated by the militants of the first hour of F, Maurice Joyeux & Maurice Laisant. There was then the following generation with militants like Jacky Toublet, Yves Peyraut & since a few years the present generation which will leave its place to following. Thus let us quote public meetings with: Maurice Joyeux, Maurice Laisant, Robert Jospin, Jacky Toublet, Yves Peyraut, Rene Berthier, Elisabeth Claude, Thyde Rosell, Helene Hernandez, Wally Rosell, Gaetano Manfredonia, Philippe Pelletier, Hugues Lenoir, Jacques Lesage of the Hague, Jean-Pierre Garnier, Gerard Lorne, Benoist Rey, Mathieu Ferré, Charly Bauer, Serge Livrozet, Abel Paz, Murray Bookchin, Jean-Pierre Duteuil, Daniel Cohn-Bendit etc plus the speakers with the bookshop lautodidacte.org who are indexed in the Archives heading of the site & by taking account of the lapses of memory that we will try to repair progressively. The subjects of these meetings have of course summer very diverse, related on the history, the topicality, problems of company (work, prison, sexuality etc), to the support for fights in progress, international subjects etc. http://lautodidacte.lautre.net/fedana/historique.php3
3500 -- anarchist L. Susan Brown
Identifying herself as an anarco-communist, L. Susan Brown's anarchist writings have stressed the significance of individualism
within groups: "a group is a collection of individuals, no more & no less". She wrote the book The Politics of Individualism, (Black
Rose Books, 1993). Some of her reasoning has been disputed by Murray Bookchin, but still bears an informative contribution to
ongoing anarchist debate.
3500 -- Ulrike Heider (1947- )
Heider is a German woman who has published books on Robert Reitzel & the Haymarket Anarchists; on he West German student movement; & on sexual theory. She received her Ph.D. in political science from J.W. Goethe
University in Frankfurt, where she has taught. She was a visiting cholar at Columbia in 1988-89, & now lives in New York City as a free-lance writer.
Most significant is her book Anarchism: Left Right & Green. This book was published & highly acclaimed in Germany in 1992, & recently released in english from City Lights Publishers. investigates three current anti-State directions. The first is anarcho-syndicalism, represented by Noam Chomsky & the late Sam Dolgoff; the second is eco-anarchism as practiced by Murray (whom she is quite critical of) & feminist Janet Biehl; the third, anarcho-capitalism, is the political philosophy of Murray Rothbard & other laissez-faire extremists. (This info from a City Lights Publishers blurb.)
Also pub. in Germany- Der Arme Teufel: Robert Reitzel, vom Vormarz zum Haymarket (Buhl-Moos: Elster, c1986)
3500 -- “...whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is
certain—that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or
has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.” (From the
Appendix of No Treason by Lysander Spooner located under Individualist Anarchism.)
http://alumni.umbc.edu/~akoont1/tmh/tmhframe.html
3500 -- POETRY ARCHIVE TOM WAYMAN
Saturday, November 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Down from his home in the Selkirk Mountains up in British Columbia, noted poet Tom Wayman
reads here tonight from his recently published collection, I'll Be Right Back (Ontario Review).
This book of new & selected poems draws from a few decades' work; Tom Wayman has
published over a dozen books of poetry. While his work covers a wide range of subjects by
means of various viewpoints & voices, his poetry is especially known for its full address of
work -- & work's central place in so many of our lives. "Wayman appears a true successor of
Whitman & the Beats, one who is his own man speaking the truth of his experience." -- The
Hudson Review. Free tickets are available starting October 25.
A Country Not Considered: Canada, Culture, Work by Tom Wayman.
Getting By: Stories of Working Lives
http://www.freepress.org/books/gettinby.html
Canadian poet & teacher
Tom Wayman points out that it is unreasonable to expect people to function fully in a democratic
society when the bulk of their experiences -- whether in schools or workplaces -- are
fundamentally undemocratic. http://www.jazzie.com/ebbco/auth/1997/1197.html#TOM WAYM
The Astonishing Weight of the Dead by Tom Wayman
Ill Be Right Back; New & Selected Poems
Wayman, Tom;
Softcover; 0865380864
http://www.opengroup.com/open/books/index/bkixpxi.html
Going For Coffee: Poetry on the Job
Wayman, Tom, ed.
Over 90 poets who work at every job from butcher to doctor to mother to bulldozer driver give
lyrical voice to the experience of having to work for a living. Second (& revised) edition of this
best-selling anthology. (1993)
G05 -- Harbour -- 209p. 14.95
http://www.poems.com/archpoet.htm
pOETRY dAILY:
http://www.poems.com/archpoet.htm
The Astonishing Weight of the Dead is Wayman's response to life in transition.
With stunning clarity, this award-winning poet reveals the emotional costs and
rewards of a mid-life self-assessment. This collection reflects Wayman's
trademark humour & unique responses to love, work, nature, & death.
0-919591-08-6 * $14.95 CAN * $12.95 USA * 164 pages, pb
http://mypage.direct.ca/p/polestar/subject.html
Work poetry proselytizes
nothing more than using
experiences in the work place
as the subject for one's poems.
Tom Wayman, the prime
mover in this "nonschool,"
points out that a third of our
lives is spent on the job, yet
almost no poetry addresses or
uses this fact. It's no surprise
then, that four of Starck's
poems hold a prominent place
in Wayman's anthology
Paperwork: Contemporary
Poems From The Job. All four
are also included in
Journeyman's Wages.
3500 -- Mother Jones (1830-1930)
Mother Jones was one of the most forceful & picturesque figures of the American labor movement. Born around
1830 she lived well into her nineties & was widely known & respected among labor groups all over the United
States. In her early life, after losing her husband & children to an epidemic, & then losing everything again in
the Chicago fire, she found in the labor movement an outlet for her inherent sympathy, love & daring. She never
had the time or the education to study the philosophy of the various movements that have inspired many devoted
idealists.
She worked especially with the miners of West Virginia & Colorado, but also with Steel Workers & groups in
many other industries. She was a born crusader & organizer. She led a march of child textile-mill workers from city to city that was
instrumental in reforming the child labor laws.
Mother Jones was an individualist. Her own emotions & ideas were so strong that she sometimes came in conflict with others
fighting for the same cause, such as John Mitchell of the mine workers. Without education or scholarship, Mother Jones had the
power of moving masses of men by her strong, living speech & action. She had likewise a total disregard for her personal safety,
and was jailed countless times.
She wrote her autobiography with some help at the age of 95. Charles Kerr published it with an introduction by Clarence Darrow. It is
probably the most emotionally riveting piece of labor history ever written.
(by RM Baseman) http://tigerden.com/~berios/libertarians.html
3509 -- The veteran Dan Chatterton, who had participated in the Chartist agitations of 1848, produced his own Anarchist paper Chatterton’s Commune-the Atheist Communistic Scorcher. This ran for 42 issues from 1884, produced in conditions of extreme poverty. http://burn.ucsd.edu/~acf/org/issue42/acbrit.html
http://flag.blackened.net/ksl/bullet11.htm#Lazarevitch
3509 -- When he is therefore attacked by what seemed to be youthful exuberance as in
the Porvenir anarquista of Barcelona (end of 1891) there is little harm done.
Other attacks are of no account, because malignity rivals in them with
authoritarian intolerance, though they called themselves individualist. I allude to
the publications beginning in Paris, 1887, & culminating in London about 1892
or 1893 & wound up by a curious trial for libel some fifteen years later.
When the anarchist movement was hunted down by the persecutions of 1893 & 1894, it received a great impulse as early as in 1895 by the sudden & rapid development of French syndicalism.
News of this reached London about the middle of 1895 & Malatesta had probably discussed the subject before with Emile Pouget who left for Paris in May. There was a meeting held in the rooms of Alfred Marsh, the editor of "Freedom," in Camden Town, N. W., Malatesta being present when these new developments & the International Socialist Workers' & Trade Union Congress of 1896 (London) were discussed; other meetings followed through the year. A last attempt was made in 1896 to maintain the solidarity of socialist & labor organizations of all shades of socialist & anarchist opinon the principle of the Bologna, Geneva & Berne Congresses of 1873 & 1876 -- by meeting the social democratic organizations in friendly discussion. For this purpose delegates from syndicates arrived in numbers & were seconded by the French Allemanists, Domela Nieuwenhuis & Cornelissen of the Dutch Party, the German independents & anarchists with G. Landauer, by Keir Hardie, Tom Mann & many others. http://www.pitzer.edu/~dward/Anarchist_Archives/malatesta/nettlau/nettlauonmalatesta.html
3509 -- When the trial (April 21-27, 1898) was just concluding, the intense, bread riots at Bari & Foggia (April 27, 28) took place --- a desperate echo of Leiter's corner in wheat at Chicago --- events which inspired the late Frank Norris' unfinished "Epic of the Wheat" --- & this movement spread from south to north & reached Milan on May 7. The South of Spain, the country about Murcia, was also on fire (burning of the octrois). The bearing of the grain & coal supply, food & transport on revolutionary outbreaks was more fully understood from that time.
The repression following these acts of despair of starving people reacted upon Malatesta who, instead of being liberated August 17 (at the end of seven months), remained in prison & was transported to the islands, first to Ustica, then to Lampedusa.
When some socialists & republicans proposed to nominate him as a candidate at local elections, he refused (letter published in the "Avanti," Rome, January 21, 1899); he did the same when Merlino, writing to the "Italia nuova," Rome, May 22, 1900, appealed to the anarchists to send Malatesta to the chamber of deputies as their spokesman & to obtain in this way, as he imagined, political elbow room. Malatesta writes to Jean Grave ("Temps nouveaux," June 9, 1900): . . . . "I consider as an unmerited outrage the simple supposition that I might wish to enter the parliamentary career."
He preferred to make his escape from the island of Lampedusa, proceeding with three others during a tempest in a bark to Malta & thence to London (May, 1899).
http://www.pitzer.edu/~dward/Anarchist_Archives/malatesta/nettlau/nettlauonmalatesta.html
3510 -- anarchist archive A short History of Polish Anarchism
An anarchist movement of Narodnik ( Russian anti-capitalist democratic
activists of the late 19th century) & Anarchist ideas from Russia and
Western Europe came into existence at the turn of the 1th century. The ideas
were by no means uniform, from the uncopromising & controversial Nieczajew
[nechaev?], gallant Bakunin, anarcho-communist prince Kropotkin or Leo
Tolstoy, promoter of a pacifist christian negation of statehood.
The first & most significant anarchistic group in the pre-independence
Poland originated in 1903 in Bialystok & consisted in an enormous part of
Jewish people. In the next years some similar centres came into being in
Nieznow, Warsaw,Lodz, Siedlce, Czestochowa, Kielce & a couple of other
towns.What particularly intensified activity in all centres was news from the
Russian Revoluution, Bloody Sunday in St Petersburg. These groups took part
in terrorist activity as well as propoganda actions such as attempts on
police officers' & factory owners' lives. There were also bank robberies to
gain funds. Nowadays the majority of us anarchists entirely reject such
methods but to understand the motivation to act in this way it is important
to realise the level of cruelty & despotism of the tsar's authority. For
example in Warsaw, on Governer general Saklow's order, 16 young anarchists,
(about 18 years old) were murdered by the authorities & their bodies thrown
into the Vistula. Shots at demonstrating workers were not uncommon either.
At the same time material popularising the ideas of anarcho-syndicalism c http://members.xoom.com/blakflag/214/214Pol.txt
4000 -- http://www.poesia.com/n2/n2_it10.htm
4000 --
4002 -- SAM DOLGOFF http://www.clark.net/pub/cosmic/98aar.html
4007 -- Miles Davis Born May 26, 1926
http://www.st-louis.mo.us/st-louis/walkofame/inductees/davis.html
4009 -- Julian Beck Living Theatre Judith Malina
"The Living Theater" by John Tytell (Grove Press, 1995), about Judith Malina & Julian Beck's life & theater
group.
Bissinger, Karl. Papers.
Accession Number: D-189. 1 linear foot.
Biography: Energetic anarchist/pacifist, photographer, & lifelong friend of Julian Beck and
Judith Malina, co-founders of The Living Theatre.
Description: Correspondence, ephemera, photographs, posters, & programs pertaining to
Living Theatre productions.
Inclusive dates: 1955-1973.
The Brig.
A film by Jonas Mekas & Adolfas Mekas. Filmed performance of the play
by Kenneth H. Brown. Originally released in 1964 by White Line Company
as a motion picture. 65 min. Video/C 2987
The Connection.(1961)
Filmed version of a play with the same title by Jack Gelber. Based on the
Living Theatre production created in 1961, as directed by Judith Malina and
designed by Julian Beck. Film version of the play The Connection, by Jack
Gelber. The play is about drug addicts waiting for a heroin dealer to bring
the drug necessary for them to make their "connection." To help pass the
time, four jazz musicians among the addicts start to play. The film was shot
in a drug addict's apartment in New York City. 105 min. Video/C 999:893
Emergency.
In 1968 the experimental film troupe, Living Theatre, returned to America
with a repertory of four new productions developed during their years of
self-imposed exile in Europe. Their triumphant tour was in tune with the
revolutionary aspirations of the late sixties, documented in this
extraordinary film. 29 min. Video/C 2988
Paradise Now.
An experimental film in which lines between political action,
psychotherapy, tribal ritual & experimental theater are blurred to create a
tale of social & esthetic breakthrough. 105 min. Video/C 2986
Signals Through the Flames.
Documentary on the Living Theater. 97 min. Video/C 1438
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pomo2.html#livingtheatre
4500 --
4507 -- 1968 cop flic image paris 1968
4700 --
5000 -- AREA 51
9003 -- 0532ARCHIVE
|
The Elements of Stupidity
John Zerzan & the New York Times
by Gently Ai
It should come as no surprise to anyone that nearly all media tend to simplify & compartmentalize those they write about. They operate under the perception, which is probably accurate, that the average reader will find it easier & more comforting to perceive all Arabs as fundamentalist terrorists, all antiwar activists as anachronistic hippies, etc.
Furthermore, this distortion is not limited to any particular
political group or worldview; nearly everyone whose activities are reported
on by the media finds the resulting coverage significantly skewed from the
original message. Most of the mainstream media, after all, don't serve any
particular political interest; they serve themselves. Anything which has the
potential of increasing advertising dollars is fair game, & reinforcing
peoples' prejudices is commonly seen as an effective way of doing this.
Due to an unfortunate coincidence of recent events in the news,
the sights of the popular press have lately been aimed at those who oppose
the government for one reason or another. The bombing of the Federal Building
in Oklahoma City & new developments in the nearly two decade old Unabomber
case gave news editors a new group to target. (But not before giving the old
ones a good run-through; many major news agencies reported as fact the wholly
unsubstantiated rumor that a group of three "Arab men" were seen driving around
in a pickup after the Oklahoma City blast.)
Despite the fact that anarchists & militia members have almost
nothing in common, most "out of the closet" anarchists who associate regularly with consumers of the mainstream press have by now had to endure a barrage of questions about sympathy to the militias. Clearly, the (incorrect) message
that people are receiving is that people like the GI-Joe wannabes in Michigan & the ex-soldiers who blew up the Federal Building are representative of everyone who opposes this particular government for any reason.
The Cops, the Times, their Dupe, & His "Ally"
Therefore, it's safe to say that anybody who expects the mainstream press
to subserviently do their bidding & deliver their message for them is a
moron. Anyone who assumes that a reporter knocking at their door comes with
good intentions is doubly so. The example that follows brings together quite
a cast of morons:
• The New
York Times: Though the Times has a long history of yellow journalism
(it was, at one point, the subject of a publication called Lies of Our
Times), it has nonetheless managed to maintain an air of credibility,
even in some non-mainstream circles. This is apparently due to the fact that even though its news coverage is just as skewed as any other paper, there is more of it, & the articles are usually longer. Quantity over quality.
A Fifth Estate staffer explained that many people, even some "radicals,"
feel that appearing in the Times conveys a certain amount of "prestige."
• The Unabomber:
An as-yet unidentified individual believed by law enforcement investigators to be responsible for sixteen package bombs sent over a seventeen year period, which have killed three people & wounded 22. The name is a concatenation of "University / Airline / Bomber," as the bomber's targets tend to be scientists or others connected with universities, airline officials, & people connected with the lumber industry (or those who simply have "wood" in their name).
Until just recently, his (the bomber is believed to be male) motives for
the attacks had remained mysterious. Just before the most recent bombing, however, he sent a long letter to the New York Times which railed against technology & in which he stated, "we call ourselves anarchists. . ."
• John Zerzan:
Technophobe, author of Elements of Refusal & Future Primitive,
& (very) regular writer for Anarchy & Alternative Press Review.
Zerzan consented to an interview with the New York Times, & the story ran on 7 May 1995. The subsequent article was bad even by Times standards: a half-inch headline proclaimed, "Prominent Anarchist Finds Unsought Ally in Serial Bomber." The first paragraph reads, "When newspapers last week published a letter form the elusive serial bomber in the Unabomber case, at least one person--a rumpled, middle-aged man who lives here in Eugene--found some measure of tempered satisfaction in all the attention given to the writer's pro-anarchist views."
Smear Techniques
In one sentence, the author expresses the three themes which make up the rest of the article:
(a) Marginalization
of Zerzan by portraying him as a crazy old crank.
(b) Implying that Zerzan is responsible for the Unabomb attacks.
(c) Using guilt-by-association to smear anyone who calls themselves an anarchist with the same charge.
From the outset, Zerzan is portrayed as an eccentric hermit. After calling him a "rumpled, middle-aged man," the article goes on to describe Zerzan as an aging, "faintly melancholic" bachelor who lives alone in a "tidy, book-lined apartment where an old telephone & a battered black-and-white television offered the only evidence of compromise."
The article then strongly implies that Zerzan himself may be responsible for the bombings--either directly or through his philosophical influence. The headline calls Zerzan & the bomber "allies." The article then describes Zerzan's "satisfaction" with the results of the bombing, & quotes him as saying, "That's not the best way to do it." But I really feel that we're getting to the point--and perhaps this is wishful thinking--that these ideas are about to burst on the scene."
Later, the article takes a fragment of a quote from Zerzan & parallels it with a similar fragment from the bomber's letter. Lastly, the article excerpts one & a half sentences from a review of one of Zerzan's books in Anarchy, in such a way as to play up for maximum effect a violent but utterly rhetorical statement.
The third major theme of the article is to paint Zerzan as a leader of the anarchist "movement"--a laughable concept, but one which, despite being an oxymoron, is quite common among non-anarchists--a tool which the author uses to simultaneously increase the "importance"
& "urgency" of the article & imply that all anarchists are just
as "guilty" as he's shown Zerzan to be. Zerzan is variously referred
to as "a bit of an idol within the [anarchist] movement, ...something
of a guru for anarchists," & a "prominent anarchist." The
article claims that Oregon & Northern California--Zerzan lives in Eugene,
Oregon--are "believed to be [the anarchist movement's] center."
A New York Times stringer also visited the offices of
the Fifth Estate, soliciting comments for the article. The reporter,
who was described is acting "embarrassed," explained that he normally
covered Detroit auto & other business news, not politics. The Fifth Estate
staffer who he spoke to refused to give the Times any information,
not even his name. Consequently, the Fifth Estate wasn't even mentioned
in the article. Had Zerzan done the same, it's safe to speculate that the
article would never have appeared
So What?
Why should anyone else care that John Zerzan allowed himself
to be made a fool of? It's necessary to back up & look at all of these events
in a larger perspective for a second.
The police & other law enforcement agents, like everyone
else, tend to react to their perception of reality rather than reality itself.
They exhibit the same, knee-jerk "do something" mentality found
in many "radical" circles--the idea that it doesn't matter whether
or not what you do is effective as long as you're out doing it, that a wasted
effort leading to certain failure is better than stepping back & trying
to understand where the real problems lie.
In other words, if the cops can convince the public that they're
trying to stop crime, then the public's perception of action becomes more
important than the fact that their efforts have not only failed, but may actually
exacerbate the problem.
The best example of this is the way that law enforcement reacts
to events in the news. The FBI incorporated the Oklahoma City bombing into
their ongoing push to overturn civil liberties constraints imposed upon them
after the exposure of the COINTELPRO ('60s & early '70s program of spying
upon & infiltrating political dissident groups). In all likelihood, had
the FBI had such powers before the bombing they still could not have stopped
it, but they view such restrictions as preventing them from "doing something."
As another example, the Detroit News ran a sensationalistic,
front-page article a few months back which (inaccurately) described "rave"
parties as bacchanalic, lawless affairs where 15-year-old girls high on Ecstasy
go around offering massages. One particularly dumb promoter decided to tell
the News reporter about a party he was holding the next weekend, perhaps
hoping for some free publicity. He got it: that night, the police burst through
the door with a TV news camera crew in tow & ticketed 200 people for "loitering"
in a commercial club! A plain-clothes policewoman had earlier tried unsuccessfully
to buy alcohol (which would have been illegal) at the club. The tickets, which
would have been unenforceable, were dropped as soon as the story had played
on the news.
Ironically, those responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing
& the Unabomb attacks appear to suffer from the same misconception of perceived
"action" vs. its real effect. If either of them had hoped to score
a blow against the government, their actions could not have been more misguided.
In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, the federal
government's popular approval rating has doubled. Even Bill Clinton's popularity
has soared. The bombing is being used as an excuse for the introduction of
legislation which promises to roll back checks on the power of the FBI to
the 1960's. Further, both incidents have served to further marginalize the
groups--the militias & anarchists--which the alleged perpetrators claim
membership in.
This latest spate of stories have shifted the public's crime
fears to those who oppose government. It won't last forever, but anarchists
should expect to endure some harassment or attempts at infiltration while
it does. Despite the fact that most anarchists have never committed any crime
more serious than minor shoplifting, if that, it wouldn't be a first. The
same FBI informant who later framed Quilah Shabazz attempted to join an anarchist
group in Minneapolis & encourage people to attack government buildings.
He was immediately recognized as a provocateur & shunned.
If the government or police wish to indict anarchists, they're
going to have to provoke people into doing something stupid, since everything
the average anarchist group normally does is legal. If everyone pays attention
& considers this threat, they should be able to avoid such provocation.
It's now more than ever a real threat that will have to be addressed.
How to Talk to the Media
Don't! If you do, lie. It can be kind of fun to see if they'll
print the absurd stories you tell if you act sincerely. Finally, it bears
repeating even if it's overstating the obvious, if the police, FBI, or other
undesirables ever do come calling, don't talk to them at all. You don't have
to, & anything you say will only help them. Find a lawyer & let them do
the talking.
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Anarchisten
