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                          LOVE AND RAGE
                        Electronic Edition

                          SEPTEMBER 1993

Love and Rage is the English-language newspaper of the Love and
Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation, an organization made up
of groups and individuals in Canada, Mexico and the US who share a
set of common politics and who work on common political projects.
Love and Rage is produced by a Production Group in New York City.
The Production group is made up of volunteers and one full-time
paid staff person.  Love and Rage is one of the many projects of
the Federation which also produces the Spanish-language Amor y
Rabia in Mexico City, operates a Federation office in Oakland,
California, and publishes an internal discussion bulletin in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, in addition to supporting various actions
and campaigns.  There are currently two working groups in the
Federation: one on racist and police violence and the other on
state borders and anti-immigrant violence.  For more information
contact the groups.

Major decisions and overall policies of the Federation are set by
an annual conference, or between conferences by the Federation
Council. The Federation Council is currently made up of two
delegates from each of the local supporting groups plus eight
delegates from the various projects.

Ongoing debates and discussions within the federation take place
in the quarterly discussion bulletin (Disco Bull).  More timely
information goes out in the bi-weekly Federation Bulletin,
currently produced in New York City.

The Federation is not a closed circle of friends. You can join the
Federation and participate fully in the decision-making process.
Any member of a local supporting group is automatically a member
of the Federation. Any individual who is in general agreement with
the stated politics of the Federation, who supports the projects
of the Federation and who pays the $25 communications fee to cover
the costs of receiving the Federation publications, may be a
member of the Federation. The communications fee will be waived on
request.

Even if you do not wish to be a member of the Federation you may
participate in Federation projects. We are always happy to have
people help with any of the projects. So please contact us.


********* NEW ADDRESS *********

Love and Rage
P.O. Box 853 Peter Stuyvesant Station
New York, NY 10009
tel.:[phone]
e-mail: [e-mail], [e-mail]

Amor y Rabia
Apdo. 11-351CP 06101
Mexico, D.F.

Federation Office (Also address for Immigration Working
group)
P.O. Box 3606
Oakland, CA 94609-0606

Discussion Bulletin
P.O. Box 581354
Minneapolis, MN 55458-1354

Info-Share
c/o AA
P.O. Box 10007
Columbus, OH

Anti-Racist Working Group
PO Box 44563
Detroit, MI 48244

Production Group: Beth, Christopher, Greg*, Matt B., Matt
L., Melissa, Todd. [PG members who didn't work on this issue
are marked with an *]

Love and Rage is printed on recycled paper, using soy-based
inks, by a union printer. ISSN # 1065-2000 [except when it
is printed entirely on recycled electrons by non-unionized
slave labor of the office staff].

When we don't have the money to produce a full- sized
edition we publish an eight page "broadsheet edition". If
you are having trouble getting the paper please call or
write to the office.

Boring Disclaimer

Yo, all the  stuff we print in the newspaper does not
necessarily represent the opinions of the Federation or of
any member of the Federation. We print lots of things for
lots of reasons. Sometimes we print articles we don't agree
with, because we believe that they are interesting or
provocative. Got it?

Editorial Policy

We encourage you to submit material for publication. Shorter
articles are more likely to be printed. 1750 words, a full
newspaper page, is a long article. Submissions may be
edited. Please include a phone number and address so the PG
can consult you on editing. Articles not printed may be sent
to our internal bulletins. All letters will be considered
for publication unless there is an explicit request that
they not be published. Letters will not be edited.

About Our Politics

The Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation is in
the process of developing a statement of our common
politics. A set of Working Papers encompassing the debate on
the content of this statement is available for $5 from
Info-Share (see address above). The following introduction
to our old Political Statement gives an idea of where we are
coming from:

Love and Rage is a bi-monthly anarchist newspaper intended
to foster revolutionary anti-authoritarian activism in North
America and build a more effective and better-organized
anarchist movement.  We will provide coverage of social
struggles, world events, anarchist actions, and cultures of
resistance.  We will support the struggles of oppressed
peoples around the world for control over their own lives.
Anarchy offers the broadest possible critique of domination,
making possible a framework for unity in all struggles for
liberation.  We seek to understand the systems we live under
for ourselves and reject any pre-packaged ideology.
Anarchism is a living body of theory and practice connected
directly to the lived experiences of oppressed people
fighting for their own liberation.  We anticipate the
radical and on-going revision of our ideas as a necessary
part of any revolutionary process.

                                *

                          LOVE AND RAGE
                        Electronic Edition

                          SEPTEMBER 1993

                          In this Issue


Top Stories:
    Day of action against klan and killer cops
    Minnesota Not Nice to Operation Rescue
    Cops Fire at Mexico City May Day Demo
    Poverty Pimps Throw Stones at Glass House

Resisting Operation Rescue:
    Fetus Freaks Without a Prayer in San Jose
    "Non-Violent" Clinic Defence, San Diego Style

Notes of Revolt:
    Toronto and Ottowa ARA Fight Fascists
    Hamilton Anti-Racist Action
    Yanomami Massacred by Miners
    MRAAAOW More than Ever: 9 Months of Animal Liberation Actions
    UPS Struggle Continues
    British Fascists Attack Anarchists
    Feds Attack earth first!
    Transgender Rage Against the Psychiatric Establishment

Brief Notes
Infoshop Opens in Bay Area
Calendar
Other Anarchist Contacts

International News & Notes:
    Activist Primer on Ex-Yugoslavia
    Bougainville Resists Toxic Imperialism
    Japanese Anti-Racists Fight Deportations
    A Window on Cuba--and the World
    Cuban Dissidents Reject Washington/Miami Control
    Remember Pogromnacht ("kristallnacht")

Grrrl culture:
    Fierce Pussy Fest (interview)
    poet grrrl! (poetry)

Sun, Sand, and Social Revolution:
 The San Diego Love and Rage Conference

Love and Rage membership info

Anarchist Black Cross:
    Update on Ohio Prison Revolt
    Prisoner Updates
    Support the Trenton 7
    Rik Scarce, Grand Jury Resister
    ABC and Other Prisoner Support Groups

Hit'em While They're Down: An Anarchist Critique of Marxism
"A Look at Leninism," by Ron Taber

Letters to Love and Rage
Chris Delvecchio 1969-1993

Subscription Info: amor y rabia/love and rage
..................................................................

                          LOVE AND RAGE
                        Electronic Edition
                                *
                          SEPTEMBER 1993

Top Stories:

DAY OF ACTION AGAINST KLAN AND KILLER COPS
Compiled by the Production Group

The Ad-Hoc Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality of
Chattanooga has issued an urgent call for a day of action
against racism and police brutality in Chattanooga, TN on
Saturday, Sept 11, 1993.  There will be a demonstration and
protest march.  Anti-racist and Queer activists from across
the country are asked to help stand against the murderous
fascists which infest the city.  There will also be an
organizer's mini-conference on Sunday, Sept 12 in order to
allow networking of anti-racist activists and to set
strategy for future offensives against fascism and racism.
The meeting may serve as the founding conference for an
anti-racist federation.

Background

On May 13, 1993, eight protesters led by the Concerned
Citizens for Justice were illegally arrested by cops at a
"police memorial" in Chattanooga.  This happened two days
after the racist report of the Hamilton County Grand Jury
that refused to prosecute eight white cops who had murdered
Black trucker, Larry Powell, on February 5, 1993. Driving
through town Powell was ostensibly stopped for DWI. The cops
choked him to death on the spot. Within the past 12 years,
over 23 persons have been known to die in local police
custody. No police have ever been prosecuted.

The protests that day were part of an entire week of
protests against police brutality, and it was felt that this
"cop memorial" was nothing but a deliberate slap in the face
of the local Black community. The Concerned CitIzens for
Justice and other anti-racist protesters felt that a
counter-demonstration was in order to combat the cops'
arrogance. They bravely marched into the midst of over 400
heavily armed cops, held up picket signs and chanted "Stop
Killer Cops...Justice for Larry Powell." Not surprisingly,
they were quickly hauled off to jail. The 8 face seven
months for "disturbing the peace" and "interfering in a
public meeting". They've been freed on $1000 bail each.

The irony of all this is not lost on the community: Now the
police want to prevent you from even talking about killer
cops. It is the eight protesters who are on trial, not the
racist cops who killed Larry Powell.

The Chattanooga 8, as they are being called, are:  Lorenzo
Komboa Ervin, Tanya Miles, Steven B. Hunter, John Edward
Johnson, Rhonda Robinson, Clifford Eberhardt, Keith Melvin,
and Charlotte Williams.  Lorenzo Komboa Ervin wrote the
pamphlet Anarchism and the Black Revolution. In the 1960s he
was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee and the Black Panther Party.  Eventually captured
by the US, he was imprisoned from 1969 to 1983 for several
alleged crimes.  Since then he's spent many years in
Chattanooga organizing against the Klan (who his Committee
helped run out of town), and police brutality and murder.

The Klan and Day of Action

Shortly after the arrest of Chattanooga 8, the Lookout
Mountain Knights of the Ku Klux Klan announced their plans
to march through the streets of Chattanooga.  The Klan's
threat to attack any future gay-rights parades in
Chattanooga was followed by an  announcement that in Sept,
1993 they would march in downtown Chattanooga. They also
pledged to fight organizers demanding the investigation of
cops in the case of Larry Powell. The day of action on Sept
11 was originally called as a national counter-demonstration
against this march.

Local anti-racist activists began to plan this counter
demonstration which apparently frightened the Klan off (the
word is that they have withdrawn their request for the
permit, but it has been impossible to confirm this).
Regardless, Chattanooga activists have decided that the day
of action will serve notice to the Klan, nazis and any other
fascists that they will not tolerate a racist presence in
their town.

The Klan is one part of a deeply entrenched white power
structure in Chattanooga that has successfully terrorized
and oppressed the Black community of that city for over 70
years.  In 1987 the Klan attempted to hold a rally in
Chattanooga and were forced to run from the considerably
larger anti-racist counter-demonstration.

A Rock Against Racism concert is planned for Saturday
afternoon and evening.  A variety of bands and styles of
music will be featured in the spirit of racial harmony.

The Chattanooga 8 deserve the support of all persons who
believe in justice and want to bring an end to police
brutality. We must demand that all criminal charges be
dropped against the demonstrators, that all protest
literature seized by the cops be returned to them, that they
also be given financial compensation for legal expenses and
the humiliation of arrest. Most importantly, we must also
continue to demand the prosecution of all the cops in the
case of Larry Powell and other victims of police brutality.
The people of Chattanooga also need your support in their
fight against the Klan and the larger white power structure.
There are several ways you can help.

Come to the march.

Write a letter to Gary Gerbitz, State's DA Office, Hamilton
County Justice Bldg., 600 Market St., Suite 310,
Chattanooga, TN 37402, [phone], and demand that they
drop all charges against the Chattanooga 8, Gary Taylor
(another motorist, pulled over ostensibly for a busted tail
light, a gun was pulled on him and he was beaten and
arrested) and other victims of police brutality and false
arrests.

Make a donation for the legal expenses of the arrested
protesters to the: Chattanooga 8 Defense Campaign, c/o
Concerned Citizens for Justice, POB 1066, Federal Courthouse
& Post Office Bldg., Chattanooga, TN 37401

Reprint this article.

For more information contact: Concerned Citizens for
Justice, Lorenzo Ervin 615-622-7614, or Maxine Cousin
615-698-8940

Love and Rage Anti-Racist Working Group [phone]

                                      *

MINNESOTA NOT NICE TO OPERATION RESCUE
By Liza

Operation Rescue (OR) announced last winter that Minneapolis
would be the site for their "Impact Training" bootcamp during the
upcoming summer and also one of seven cities targeted for their
"Cities of Refuge" campaign. After hearing their plans to
terrorize abortion clinics, doctors, and especially women seeking
abortions, local anarchists grew determined to fight these
right-wing fascists and win.

The Liberals

As we began to organize for the so-called siege that was expected
to hit the city in June, we quickly realized that this battle
would evolve into many different struggles, some within the broad
pro-choice movement. The Network to Ensure Access (NEA), a local
coalition formed by mainstream pro-choice groups like Planned
Parenthood and the National Organization for Women (NOW), in
reaction to OR's summer plans, held non-violence training
sessions for individuals interested in keeping the clinics open.
These volunteers were required to submit personal identification
at the sessions, and were forced to agree to remain non-violent
even when taunted, spit on, or physically attacked by OR. Most
embarrassing of all, they were expected to wear bright red
t-shirts at the clinic defenses with slogans that whined "Keep
Minnesota Nice." This tired slogan was eventually aimed at
pro-choice radicals, and not at Operation Rescue. More on this
twisted chain of events later.

The Action Coalition for Reproductive Freedom

As radicals and anti-authoritarians, we wanted a response that
would go beyond the standard clinic defense where we are herded
like cattle, with decisions being made by the elite few of the
mainstream pro-choice movement and often carried out by the
police. We also wanted to set a precedent by illustrating that
these largely-white right-wingers, whose leaders are all men, are
not welcome in our city, or anywhere. With these ideas in mind,
radicals in the Twin Cities formed an alternative coalition, the
Action Coalition for Reproductive Freedom (ACRF). This coalition
consisted of anarchists, communists, and other leftists, many of
whom had worked together resisting the Gulf War, and in other
anti-imperialist work. Though we had different ideas about
general organizational strategy, we came together united in our
plan to fight to keep the clinics open to all women. Also, as
radicals we realize that OR extends beyond being anti-choice.
They represent the tip of the iceberg of a strong far-right
Christian movement. Members of ACRF were committed to fighting
this fascism, and agreed that these zealots needed to be
confronted at the churches where they organize, as well as at the
clinics.

Direct Action

Our oppositional campaign began with two successful direct action
projects initiated by the Twin Cities Anarchist Federation
(TCAF): a billboarding spree and a postering rampage. The
controversial poster which defiantly raged "Operation Rescue,
come to our town, we'll lock you in a church and burn the fucker
down!" was plastered all over the Twin Cities, including Calvary
Temple, the church that was hosting OR. The church's leaders held
a press conference the  next day, blaming "militant anarchists"
for the action. This incident triggered the beginning of our
hideous (non)relationship with the mainstream press, who spit out
words like anarchist, militant, and radical right along with
thugs, fanatics, and violence (big shock). To the media, it all
simply meant the same, bad and dangerous to "Minnesota Nice."

The Communists

Unfortunately, besides dealing with the liberals, the media, and
the police, we were forced to focus on another disruptive force,
the National Women's Rights Organizing Committee (NWROC), a front
group for the Revolutionary Workers League, a Trotskyist group
based in Detroit. That NWROC came to Minneapolis was not
shocking; they are known to travel from city to city to fight OR
and others not in the vanguard. The RWL has a history of
disrupting positive political organizing, they are especially
known for their authoritarian behavior during the Gulf War. About
15 members from NWROC arrived with plans to organize us, the
masses, into a "mass militant movement," without consideration
that radicals in the Twin Cities had been organizing for months,
and had to live here once all the frenzy died down. In their
first of many flyers, they criticized anarchists who are only
interested in "self-expression." After several small negotiating
meetings between members of NWROC and the ACRF, where mostly all
we heard was repeated rhetoric like "militant mass movement," "no
reliance on cops, courts and Democrats," "militant mass
movement..." our fears that they would disrupt our coalition
organizing were great. An entire article could be devoted to
explaining their annoying presence, but that would be a waste of
time. Just one example paints their arrogance clearly: Members of
NWROC insisted on having a demonstration for the Minnesota 8
(eight African-American men imprisoned unjustly in the shooting
of a white cop). They did this without getting the basic facts of
the situation, and after the Committee for Equal Justice for the
Minnesota 8 (a group founded and lead by African-American women
who have been organizing for close to a year) had told them they
were not interested in having a demonstration for strategic
reasons.

NWROC was here, at least for the week, and we could not ignore
this very annoying fact; all we could hope was that these folks
would not be completely disruptive. Many other activists from
around the country came to Minneapolis for this week--anarchists
from Chicago, Detroit, and New York, along with members of Refuse
and Resist! and the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). These
comrades made it clear that they were in Minneapolis to support
and assist the organizers who lived here. They were essential in
the defeat of OR, and I am grateful to them for coming.

Organizational Structure

ACRF had decided to hold big, open, democratically run meetings
during the "Week of Refuge." The purpose of these meetings was to
assess the day's events and plan for the next day. We hoped that
people who felt alienated and disempowered from the top-down
organizing of the NEA would come to these meetings and
participate in the actual decision-making of the group. These
meetings were well attended and very long. One of the items that
was repeatedly on the agenda was what organizational structure
for clinic defense and demonstrations would we adhere to. We
decided on following a structure proposed by anarchists which
consisted of a rotating coordinating committee, affinity groups,
and runners. By the end of the week many non-anarchists were
arguing against this model and for a more hierarchical structure;
however, most anarchists feel like this was the most
participatory and democratic way of organizing ourselves, and
that it was a success.

More Direct Action

All this is a little background on what was the most intense,
concentrated week of political work that members of AWOL (my
political collective) have experienced in a very long time. On
Friday, July 9, a demonstration was held at the church in the
suburbs where OR had their kickoff rally. Close to one hundred
protestors, dressed in black with masks on their faces surprised
the few police and security, who were totally unprepared. We
blocked cars from entering the driveway to the church, angrily
chanting "The clinics are open, the church is closed!" Not only
did we make an intimidating presence; we acted as a united raging
force--it was clear that we would not passively sit around while
OR was in town. In marched the cops, some in riot gear, but it
was too late. Our point was made. Since we were not interested in
having any demonstrators arrested, a legal picket line was formed
on the grass in front of the church. Threatening "We'll see you
tomorrow (at the clinic)," pro-choice activists rejoiced in a
successful beginning to the week. Inside the church at which we
were demonstrating, Pat Mahoney, one of their leaders, warned the
congregation that OR was losing this battle waged against women.
And for once he was right.

Pokey's Last Stand

Due to recent laws passed in Minnesota to protect abortion
clinics, only a small number of protestors, anti-or pro-choice,
were allowed to be on clinic property. The NEA had told two
thousand volunteers to stay at home and wait to be called in.
Members of the ACRF agreed that this was strategically unwise.
What would happen when OR stormed the clinic? Would we all wait
around for the police to slowly arrest those protestors blocking
the clinic? We realized the potential for this scene to reoccur
was great, and decided we would not let OR past the driveway.
This meant mobilizing as many activists as possible, starting in
the pre-dawn morning and staying until clinics closed for the day
(much to the chagrin of the clinic higher-ups, who gave us a
small space on the sidewalks and instructed us not to chant or
cause trouble as they rolled their eyes).

What we expected at the clinics during this week was a siege of
hundreds of "pro-lifers" blocking and storming the clinics. What
we got was no more than fifty of them at one time, and sometimes
as few as five, picketing, smiling, singing, and praying. OR
leaders claimed they were presenting themselves as they are--
peaceful, loving, law-abiding citizens, but we  knew better. We
were aware that there were very few "pro-lifers" in Minneapolis
who were willing to block clinics, possibly because of the
intimidation radicals caused by being aggressively, and
uncompromisingly confrontational. Also, I think people realized
that this movement of the fetus- obsessed is actually dying.
Except for a few minor skirmishes, like with a big, leather
vested "pro-lifer" named Pokey and endless quibbles in the hot
sun with members of NWROC, clinic defense was mostly noneventful,
which was fine with us. The clinics remained open and accessible
to women seeking abortions. Two of our comrades got arrested the
first day, but charges were dropped. Even the red-shirted NEA
members cheered us the last day, like they appreciated our strong
presence.

Police Riot

One of the more intense, action-packed days was on Sunday, July
11, when a demonstration was held outside Calvary Temple while
churchgoers prayed for unborn fetuses. What they saw going into
church was an outrageous, festive display of opposition. Around
two hundred people were chanting slogans like "Pray, You'll Need
It. Your Cause Has Been Defeated!," queers in drag were kissing
and humping in the street, drums were banged, whistles shrieked,
and the Church Ladies for Choice exuberantly lead the crowd in
hymns such as "God is a Lesbian." Cops continuously attempted to
push people behind the barricades, but to no avail. The crowd
quieted down as the rally began. Suddenly,without warning, the
police attacked the unsuspecting MS's who happened to be behind
the barricades on "legal" territory. One was quickly thrown into
a cop car, while protestors immediately surged to the other MC's
defense. An unarrest seemed immanent, until the cops sprayed mace
and pepper gas indiscriminately into the crowd, which included
several small children. If the cops thought mace would control
the crowd, they were mistaken. Angry, injured demonstrators
linked arms and blocked the police car that the two protestors
were in. The cops attacked the crowd, subsequently arresting four
more demonstrators, one of whom was kneeling on the grass of a
neighbor hosing the mace out of his eyes. Another cop car was
blocked with demonstrators shouting "Let him go!" What began as a
celebratory theatrical festival turned into a virtual police
riot.

All was not lost, however. The militancy and unity among
demonstrators that occurred in the wake of the attack was very
powerful. Most of the protestors were in the street, linking up,
unarresting, and helping those most injured. People responded to
the unexpected brutal attack with an overwhelming solidarity that
made me think we were in the midst of an actual revolutionary
social movement. Most of the demonstrators went directly to jail
to demand the release of those arrested. All but two of the folks
arrested were held for 36 hours due to unusually high bail; as
well as being banned from the church and the clinics for the rest
of the week.

The Aftermath

Of course the press pounced on this situation as they did all
week and manipulated the facts to  make it seem like the
demonstrators caused the violence and the cops were just trying
to control the crowd. The press concentrated their concoction on
the fact that there were many "outsiders" agitating and ruining
the pro-choice movement (NWROC happened to be media mongers on
top of everything else.) Editorials in the Star Tribune
congratulated the police and compared the radical's tactics with
those of OR. The NEA quickly denounced us publicly (not the first
time that week!); they were "repelled" by our tactics and worried
aloud that we were painting the pro-choice movement as violent.
After having a discussion, the ACRF decided to hold a press
conference the next day at which we described this experience as
a brutal police attack when we were exercising our right to
protest. We also explained that we had absolutely nothing in
common with OR, and that our strategy was to confront OR on their
fascist agenda. Even though we know the press is twisted and that
liberals will always hate our tactics, we agreed that
strategically the press conference was a wise move. The criticism
from the press continued all week; our failure would be their
success. Except we know we did not fail.

It seems like no matter how hard activists fight, we rarely win.
Except this time we were victorious. We fought against these
fascists right next to (or sometimes under!) unprincipled and
often authoritarian "allies." We saw the demise of Operation
Rescue in the Twin Cities, partly due to our unprecedented
aggressiveness and opposition, and partly because their movement
is losing, bigtime. As anti-authoritarians, we realize now that
we made many mistakes. But we are also united in a way we have
never been before, because there is nothing in the world that
compares to coming together in fierce political action and
winning.

Charges for the six arrested at Calvary Temple range from
obstruction to assault--two of these folks are local, three are
from Chicago, and one from Detroit. Five of those arrested are
facing a trial this fall. Several have gross misdemeanor charges.

These activists need support! For more information write:

Macalester Peace and Justice Committee1600 Grand Ave.St. Paul, MN
55105-1899

                                      *

COPS FIRE AT MEXICO CITY MAY DAY DEMO
By the Mexico Production Group

Responding to a call by the Love and Rage Network, on May 1st an
anarchist contingent joined the march of the Movimiento Proletario
Independiente (Independent Proletarian Movement_MPI) in Mexico
City. The march began at the Niños Heroes (Child Heroes) monument
in Chapultepec shortly after the scheduled time.

The anarchist contingent marched at the end of all of the
contingents, with our own banner, flags and slogans. The planned
route of the march went along Paseo de la Reforma to Juárez Ave.
and from there to Madero street to end up in front of the Palacio
Nacional (National Palace), but the route was changed when we
received the notice that the police were on the Glorieta Cristobal
Colón planning to stop the march. In order to avoid confrontation,
the marchers decided to change course at Niza street, passing
straight through the Pink Zone (the most Yuppie, commercialized
part of the city), terrifying more than one Bourgeois and several
tourists out shopping in the expensive stores of the area.  We
continued on Chapultepec avenue and shortly we changed direction
towards Fray Servando avenue; once again avoiding a confrontation,
since the forces of repression were trying to block our path.

The march continued forward energetically, as all of the
participants were consciously avoiding provocations. Our
contingent chanted: "Primero de mayo, día de trabajo, los
gobernantes vayan al carajo" ("First of May, day of work, those
who govern can go to hell") and "Ni Dios, ni Estado, ni Patrón, no
mantenemos a ningún cabrón" ("Neither God, nor State, nor Boss, we
won't put up with any assholes.") Suddenly, at López street, just
before Lazaro Cardenas thruway we were met with a barrier of blue
helmets of about 300 troops, shields and nightsticks in hand, and
a second line of more than 100 uniformed beasts riding on
beautiful horses. They blocked the path of the demonstration in an
open and shameless provocation. The police formed a ring, making
it impossible to continue on alternate streets, blocking the exits
with judicial soldiers and anti-riot cops with attack dogs [There
are many different police forces in Mexico City, including
judicial, special forces, municipal, and several others.]

Since our contingent was marching at the end, about four or five
blocks from the front it was difficult to find out what was
happening there.

Moments later, we knew that the head of the demonstration was
having difficulties. From the cars with loudspeakers which
accompanied several different contingents we began to hear
messages and chants: "Let us through!", "We are workers and not
aggressors!". Minutes later the beasts charged at the crowd,
attacking indiscriminately with nightsticks and rocks despite the
presence of children and older people. The comrades in Sindicato
Ruta 100 (the Route 100 Union), along with other militants in MPI,
sent the trucks up front. The trucks faced attacks with bullets
and rocks and the attempt cost us some of our forces. The
confrontation between the demonstrators and the pigs changed, in a
few seconds, into a pitched battle that lasted over 20 minutes.

Twenty-one demonstrators were injured by the state forces.  Those
that had the luck of finding a rock, a stick or a pipe were able
to fuck up the closest aggressors. Tweny-four cops were injured by
demonstrators defending themselves.  After some cops were shot,
with others receiving severe fractures and lesions, the cops fired
tear-gas cannisters into the crowd. The suffocation, the pain in
the throat, the insufferable burning in the eyes and constant
tears forced us to withdraw quickly. We left behind us our trucks,
riddled with bullets, their windows broken from rocks thrown by
the cops.

Finally we entered the Zócalo [the central historical plaza in
Mexico City which faces the cathedral and the President's
mansion], where we had a rally to conclude the march in front of
the national palace. The speeches of the directors, leaders,
secretaries general, and other hierarchical position-holders of
each of the participating organization flooded the center of the
capital with "revolutionary demagoguery". For our part, Ana Laura
and Miguel Lora (who had signed up in order to speak at the rally)
tried to speak to the demonstrators.  We found_to our
surprise_that within this "independent" gathering were the same
Stalinists as usual.  We noted and denounced the presence of some
of these authoritarian dinosaurs (as much enemies of the oppressed
as are the State and Capital) within a movement with such a
dignified, valiant and revolutionary foundation. The demonstrators
applauded our call for revolutionary self-determination and direct
action.

                                      *

New York:

POVERTY PIMPS THROW STONES AT GLASS HOUSE
By Dave Lawrence

Glass House is a large squat, housing a diverse group of people,
on New York's Lower East Side. Last April, a plan for the
city-owned building to be developed as AIDS/HIV housing was
presented to the Community Board for its approval. Residents of
Glass House moved quickly to figure out how they could save their
home from what on the surface may seem like a much-needed plan to
provide housing for people with AIDS.

People from Glass House immediately started to investigate the
proposal. They spoke with other squatters and political activists
from the neighborhood, including ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to
Unleash Power). The plan was being proposed by a non-profit
called Pueblo Nuevo, a group with no experience working with
people with AIDS and close ties to city councilmember Antonio
Pagan. Pagan has opposed every AIDS housing project that has come
along. In particular, he has spoken strongly against a proposal
by the ACT UP spin-off group, Housing Works. However, Pagan
supports the Pueblo Nuevo project. After all, it would be built
by his friend and ally, Robert Caballero, the head of Pueblo
Nuevo, it will not be near his yuppie constituency, and it will
push out squatters. More significantly, it will give him
ammunition in his fight against Housing Works and another AIDS
housing project being proposed by a Quaker group. Now Pagan could
finally say he supports housing for PWAs.

The struggle to save Glass House began with the handing out and
posting of leaflets that explained the situation and asked people
to come out and voice their support for Glass House at Community
Board 3 (CB3) meetings. Early on in this process of building
support a dialogue was opened between Glass House and Housing
Works. A statement was distributed and read at Community Board
subcommittee meetings by a representative of Housing Works that
questioned the need to evict Glass House in order to provide
housing for PWAs. At these meetings Glass House revealed the fact
that they were already housing people who were HIV positive.
Under pressure from Pueblo Nuevo a group called Loisaida Inc.
backed off in its claim for Glass House to become a trade school
for youth, conceding half the site to Pueblo Nuevo. Throughout
the course of the subcommittee meetings, despite numerous
speeches by Glass House residents and people from the community
who support the squat, members of the Community Board discounted
Glass House squatters as trespassers who "are not neighbors" and
therefore had no say in the future of Glass House.

The strategy for saving Glass House from eviction was never based
on convincing the Community Board to vote in favor of squatters;
that could never happen, especially since the board is packed
with Pagan appointees. Also, the Community Board has no real
power in city government; its a rubber stamp to appease advocates
of "community involvement." However, the Community Board offered
a forum to make publicly known the determination of Glass House
to survive. With the full board meeting just around the corner,
Glass House was faced with the task of not only building
community support for the squat in the  larger community, but
building solidarity within the squatter movement. Glass House
still had a reputation as a disorganized summer punk crash pad
even though this had not been the case for over a year. In the
short period of time before the CB3 meeting, Glass House
distributed a statement of purpose and principles to other squats
and around the neighborhood, along with a call for people to come
out and show support at the upcoming meeting. An emergency
Eviction Watch (a network of Lower East Side squats) meeting was
held the night before the board meeting where a number of
different strategies and scenarios were discussed and debated.

The full meeting of CB3 took place at Cooper Union. A hundred
squatters attended along with other community residents there for
other issues. During the public session only three people
supporting Glass House were called on to speak. As the public
session was called to an end by the chair, a group of about 25
squatters from Glass House and other squats moved to the front of
the auditorium carrying a banner as others cheered. What started
out as a peaceful disruption of the proceedings turned
confrontational when Luis Soler, chairman of CB3, directed the
cops to clear the room. He then began pointing out people to be
arrested including two CB3 members, Margarita Lopez and Joyce
Ravitz, who he saw as political opponents. Soler was seen
videotaping the subsequent unrest. During the struggle, tables
and chairs were overturned and water spilled onto CB3's
paperwork. Throughout the struggle the room was filled with a
chaotic ambiance from the smell of stink bombs hanging in the air
combined with shouting and the strobes and sirens from the fire
alarms that had been pulled. The meeting had effectively been
shut down. A total of 11 people were arrested including the
Community Board members. Two squatters are still facing felony
riot charges. In the aftermath of the disturbance, City
Councilmember Antonio Pagan, who was not present at the meeting,
distributed a letter in which he accused squatters of having
conspired with other political forces who oppose his policies.

The following week the Community Board was reconvened and
approved the Pueblo Nuevo plan for Glass House. Squatters and
anyone else opposed to Pagan and his cadre were barred from
attending the meeting. Glass House held a press conference and
rally outside the site of the meeting and then in defiance to the
authority of the board to decide their fate, marched away before
the meeting was over.

In the following weeks Glass House continued to build alliances
with other anti-Pagan forces, primarily those within the AIDS
activist community. Glass House and some other squatters are
working in a coalition of groups trying to build AIDS housing who
are being opposed by not-in-my-back-yard forces. The coalition
opposes evictions and displacement for the purposes of building
AIDS facilities. A resolution passed by ACT UP states that, "ACT
UP recognizes the group of squatters occupying ...[Glass House]
as the rightful residents of that building..." and  goes on to
say "ACT UP recognizes squatting as an appropriate, necessary,
and sometimes the only housing option for low income people,
including some people living with HIV and AIDS."

Following the eviction of 32 families from two squatted buildings
in the South Bronx, a demonstration was held at City Hall, and
later moved to the main office of Housing Preservation and
Development, to protest the Bronx eviction and the threat to
evict Glass House. (HPD does not control the site of Glass House
but would partially fund the Pueblo Nuevo project.) The ACT UP
statement was hand-delivered to an HPD official by a Glass House
resident who was threatened with arrest if she didn't leave the
premises. Late in July a concert was held in Tompkins Square Park
to raise awareness of the Glass House situation. Despite a police
presence so large that in and of itself it qualified as a
provocation, the day ended without serious incident.

The struggle to save Glass House is not over. Police have plans
for the eviction but apparently have not gotten the go-ahead from
City Hall. When all the politicians return from summer vacation
the battle will likely heat up, but for the first time it looks
like Glass House has a fighting chance.

                                      *

Resisting Operation Rescue:

FETUS FREAKS WITHOUT A PRAYER IN SAN JOSE
By Dean Tuckerman

They promised their largest actions ever.  They promised to shut
down abortion clinics and harass doctors and other clinic workers
in seven cities across the country.  They call themselves the
vanguard of the "pro-life" Christian right. They called this
campaign "Cities of Refuge." They failed...in every city where
there was clinic defense.  According to reports received as of this
writing OR failed in 6 cities and only closed two clinics on two
successive days in suburban Philadelphia, at the Chester-Crozer
Clinic (a part of the Chester-Crozer Hospital in Upland, PA, a
working-class town between Chester, PA and Southwest Philadelphia)
and a clinic fifty miles away in Wilmington, Del.  It seems that
the clinic defense group in Philadelphia did not provide defense in
the far suburbs, and refused to provide defense at a clinic that
was part of a hospital.

Here in the Bay Area, open clinics had defenders from Sacramento to
Monterey, but especially centered on clinics in San Jose, which OR
had announced as the only City of Refuge west of the Rocky
Mountains. On Friday night, they had an opening prayer service and
pep rally which we demonstrated against.  [We, generally in this
article, refers to the militant clinic defenders brought out by Bay
Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights "BACORR" (formerly Bay
Area Coalition Against Operation Rescue), the BAAD (Bay Area
Abortion Defense) Coalition in San Jose, and assorted individuals
and groups ranging from the Sparticist League to the League of
Women Voters.  The National Organization of Women (NOW), California
Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL), the Pro-Choice Coalition,
and Planned Parenthood also brought out defenders and clinic
escorts.]

On Saturday morning, 2,000 defenders and escorts went to clinics
throughout the Bay Area.  OR began by having a prayer rally at
downtown San Jose's Planned Parenthood (SJPP) where the only person
taken into custody that day was a San Francisco anarcha-feminist
and organizer of Food Not Bombs.  OR couldnt do much on Saturday
because of the numbers of pro-choice defenders and escorts at every
clinic.  At SJPP and other Planned Parenthoods, many defenders
refused to sign PPs non-violence code, and disputes broke out on
questions of self-defense and of defenders moving OR if they come
into position to close down a clinic.  This dispute would continue
all week with different clinics and organization insisting on
non-violence until OR actually shows up, and then asking BACORR
("the radicals") for help in removing them when they actually laid
siege to a clinic.  This happened at Los Gatos Choice on Wednesday
and at San Mateo Planned Parenthood on the second Saturday.  But
more on that later.

On Saturday afternoon, there was a rally that showed the breadth
and diversity (and real differences) of the Bay Area pro-choice
movement.  Right after someone praised the police as defenders of
our rights, someone else would denounce them.  Politicians would
speak and be praised, as well as denounced.  There were rich and
poor, white and non-white (although not enough non-white),
separatist and inclusivist (of all stripes), men and women,
straight, gay, and bi, and all types in between.  There were people
who consider themselves feminists and believe abortion is a vital
part of women's liberation, and there were those who believe that
abortion is to be avoided but still believe in a woman's right to
choose.  This was a classical "united front in action."  We
disagree on everything else except the right to choice, and
physically keeping the clinics open.

The next day, Sunday, OR's main activity was to pray.  Boy, did
they need it.  Already their numbers were less than they announced,
and there seemed to be less people willing to block clinics.  We
counter-protested, but not much happened.  On Monday, Tuesday, and
Friday, when many pro-choicers went back to work, not much
happened.  By saying "not much happened," it doesn't mean they
didn't send out scout cars to the clinics, etc.  It means that we
had them outnumbered and out- maneuvered.  They just couldn't shut
down any clinics.  The only real incident Monday was the arrest of
Santa Cruz anarchist, Queer activist, and IWW organizer Deke
Nihilson, who was arrested at SJPP trying to block an OR cameraman
photographing a patient going inside.

Later that afternoon, they hit Blossom Hill (a SJ neighborhood)
Planed Parenthood, and shut down a clinic that was NOT doing
abortions that afternoon.  So they stopped people going in to get
sex education, pregnancy tests, birth control advice and pills, Pap
smears and other things Planned Parenthood does.  It seems that PP,
not realizing or not wanting to realize that OR would close down a
clinic NOT doing abortions, didn't notify anyone that they were
open that afternoon so there were no defenders there.  OR, for its
part, claimed to the media that they had saved three or four
babies.  Not!

Wednesday morning was their first major hit; we, of course,
repelled them, and all patients got to their scheduled
appointments, as they did all week.  In the rich suburbs of Los
Gatos is the Choice Clinic, where the clinic director said only the
police would be allowed to go on their grounds, making it hard to
defend the doors on this large piece of land with multi-directional
entry.  When the OR cars arrived, some of their big goons went down
a back pathway while others sat down to block the driveway.  We
defended and created access as best we could, chasing them away
from the back area.  Two defenders were arrested trying to repel
OR's rearguard.  Up front, people took the idea of actually moving
OR to heart for the first time and started to carry blockaders
across the street and away from the driveway!...until the cops told
us that was their job, which they proceeded to do, very slowly.
Thanks to the people who disobeyed the clinic director in the back
and to those who carried OR in the front, and no thanks to
snail-like cops who feel it is their job (if they agree to do
anything about OR) to arrest OR and not to worry about patients
getting in, all patients got their procedures done that morning, on
time.

That afternoon, many of us felt they were going to hit again, so we
all went to Alum Rock Planned Parenthood.  Alum Rock is in a
multi-racial working class neighborhood of San Jose, and is
surrounded by a shopping center.  People from the neighborhood gave
the biggest support of the week of any neighborhood we were in.
Because of the morning success through militancy, Planned
Parenthood allowed us to put up a defense line on their property,
and all groups worked together surprisingly well.  NOW and BACORR
exchanged info that they had not done earlier.  OR did not hit.  It
is my opinion that their tactical people, some of whom were
obviously watching us from the sidelines, was the "unity of Alum
Rock" and held back. That evening at San Jose's main Civic
Auditorium, Randy Terry, OR's founder and chief "theoretician"
spoke.  Outside, we had a noisy picket line.  Four or five people
were arrested in incidents ranging from an OR goon being spit upon
to raising a drumstick too high.  To a fairly empty room, in front
of mainly their own cadre of bible thumpers and goon squad geeks,
Randy started by castigating mainline religions for not helping him
"save babies."  Near the end of his speech he said OR is changing
its purpose.  He says its new purpose is to create a "Christian
Democratic Republic" in the US where only believers in the Ten
Commandments would be allowed to hold office.

Thursday they tried a tactic of pure harassment.  They picked out
four doctors who perform abortions and set up what they called a
"Tour of Shame," driving their people from one house to the next
and marching through neighborhoods with signs like your neighbor
"Dr. ______ kills babies," or "Don't send your children to play
with Dr. ______.  He'll kill them, like he does little babies,"
and, of course, enlarged gruesome pictures of what are generally
miscarriages.  Most of them didn't picket the doctors' houses
themselves because of a San Jose anti-harassment ordinance known as
the "bubble law."  This law requires the police to mark off a 1,000
foot bubble protecting the target of the picket.  When picketers
enter the bubble, police are supposed to arrest them, which they
did in this case, but very slowly.

On Saturday morning, OR attempted another hit.  They went to San
Mateo Planned Parenthood, about 30 miles north of San Jose.  They
came in, attempting to block the front door.  Defenders were
allowed by the clinic director and police to set up at defense
line, and carry OR away from the doors.  When OR complained, a cop
was overheard saying, If they're not hurting you, were not going to
stop them. It seems the cops basically didnt want to get involved
altogether, only trying to keep their community as placid as could
be attempted, with as little arrests and paperwork as possible.
During the picketing and prayer period, the cops with riot gear
ready, mainly faced defenders and not OR. They allowed a skinhead
who was assaulting defenders and using racist and sexist epithets
to escape into OR's crowd.  Many of these "Christians" welcomed him
into their fold.  That afternoon, we had a victory party.  Most of
us were exhausted but exhilarated.  Every patient during the COR
got in on time.  They only clinic OR closed was not doing
abortions.

Probably to salve their embarrassment, they did an unscheduled
"minuteman" hit on Monday morning.  They drove up to the clinic and
blocked the front gate with a car.  They then blocked the main and
side doors.  But, through stupidity or whatever, they didn't block
the back door, and every client got in.  Even when they tried
clinics without defenders, not a single patient missed her
appointment during their all-important week in the Bay Area.

As it says in the Bible, there is no rest for the weary.  At least
eight Bay Area pro-choicers face charges from San Jose events.
They need to be supported. In September, OR will be bringing its
"IMPACT Team" paramilitary training to Sacramento 100 miles east of
the Bay area. Dr. Gunn's murderer was part of the IMPACT Team
trained in Florida.  Everyone in California and the West is being
asked to stay on alert for the arrival of this anti-woman terrorist
school.

The struggle to stop Operation Rescue has given people some idea
that our own power is what defends abortion access (and every other
good thing) and not laws or politicians.

                                      *

"NON-VIOLENT" CLINIC DEFENSE, SAN DIEGO STYLE
by Richard Beuth

Pro-choice activists met with a strange demand as they showed up
at San Diego, CA clinics as part of anti-Operation Rescue actions
around the country. Forces from Planned Parenthood greeted the
clinic defenders with a loyalty oath, demanding that they sign a
statement saying they were non-violent.

Supporters of Planned Parenthood then directed the police to
remove the defenders who would not sign the "oath." People who
went to the clinic to defend the rights of women then linked arms
and risked arrest by men with guns and handcuffs ordered by the
"non-violent" forces from Planned Parenthood.

Three clinic defenders were arrested and face possible fines of
$1000 for violating San Diego's new "bubble law." The law makes
it a crime to demonstrate within 100 feet of a health care
facility. Apparently the police treated the clinic defenders as
"demonstrators." The law was supported by mainstream pro-choice
forces. --from ROSE News Service

                                      *

Notes of Revolt:

TORONTO AND ONTARIO ARA FIGHT FASCISTS

Anti-Racist Action (ARA) has taken the initiative against
fascists in Ontario.

Ottowa: Beating back the boneheads

On May 29 the Heritage Front, a neo-Nazi skinhead gang, held a
recruiting concert at the Ottawa Boys and Girls Club which it
had rented under false pretences. ARA organized a demonstration
of 600 people outside the Club where 50 Nazis, mostly from
Toronto, had met. Supposedly 100 recruits were to show up for
the concert, but the protest prevented them from entering. As
confrontations flared with the cops, many people including
seniors and people with children left the scene to avoid a fight
with the cops. More demonstrators left when they learned that
the concert had been called off. Then the Nazis emerged and
began what the next day's papers called a "running street
battle" with the protestors who defended themselves against
hails of rocks and beer bottles with the same. Seven "Church of
the Creator" skinheads were arrested. ARA suffered no arrests.
Heritage Front vehicles used to bring the group to Ottawa had
their tires slashed. The Front's recruiting drive was a failure,
but ARA's membership is growing. ARA is doing education work to
counter racist propaganda aimed at high school students. Local
school boards have been reluctant to grant official status to
the student-run education effort, especially after learning that
ARA is already functioning in all the schools in the area.
-- from the Industrial Worker

                              *

Toronto: trashing the house of hate

On June 11 more than 200 people gathered at a downtown community
center in Toronto for a demonstration called by Toronto
Anti-Racist Action (ARA), and prepared to march to a Nazi center
of operation known only to a few organizers. The secrecy of the
destination enabled the demonstration to avoid over 50 boneheads
with baseball bats and 2x4s, as well as the smug journalists and
massive police presence waiting at what they assumed was the
destination of the demonstration, the home of Ernst Zundel, an
international fascist leader, publisher and propagandist.
Instead the target was the rented house which is the base of the
local "telephone hotline" spewing forth filth and fascism daily
as well as being one of the primary organizing tools of the
neo-Nazi Heritage Front. When the demonstrators reached the
street they distributed leaflets and stickers explaining who the
neighborhood nazi was. Most of the residents of the racially
diverse area supported the demonstration, and some joined in.
The house was empty, but was soon covered in eggs and pink
paint. Windows and doors were smashed, but the house was not
entered. Finally the decision was made to leave, as Toronto had
not seen such a militant anti-fascist action before. A week
after the demonstration anti-racists were being harassed by
boneheads and sought by the police as well. The head of the
Heritage Front, Wolfgang Droege, is being charged with dangerous
weapons and aggravated assault for trying to seek retribution
after the demonstration when ARA members were attacked -- and
successfully defended themselves -- later that evening.  One charge
of assault against the police was brought against an anti-racist
at the later event as well. --from Prison News Service

                             *
HAMILTON ANTI-RACIST ACTION

There is now an Anti-Racist Action in Hamilton, Ontario. It
has been around for about seven months now. They have been
holding meetings and working on ongoing projects such as
anti-graffiti flyers and stickers. Contact them at:

Hamilton Anti-Racist Action
P.O. Box 57069
Jackson Station
Hamilton, ONT L8P 4W9

                              *

Garimpieros (goldminers) massacred at least 20 members of the
Yanomami tribe in the Amazon during the months of July and
August.  [The number was originally thought to be much higher
because the entire populations of two villages fled the scene of
the killings and were presumed dead.  They have since been
located and the original estimates revised]. Killings are a
common occurrence in Roraima State, Brazil, where the greed of
capitalism in the form of garimpeiros clashes with the
subsistence land-based economy of the largest unassimilated tribe
in the Americas. The blood bath occurred well within what is
supposedly recognized as Yanomami National Park.  The park was
instituted by  then-President Fernando Callor de Mello on
November 15, 1991, in an attempt to gain international
respectability. The context of the killings is further
complicated by the fact that the land has been contested between
Brazil and Venezuela for many years. Attempts to investigate the
crimes have been hampered by this dispute.

In a communique translated by Brazilian activists, Davi Kopenawa
Yanomami said:

"I would like to inform the world that the murder of my people
continues.

"A large number of Yanomami, including men, women, and children,
were just killed by garimpeiros in villages located in the area
of Homoxi and Xidea...

"This has already happened several times since the first massacre
in Paapiu in 1987.  But, no one has ever been arrested or even
punished for these acts.

"I am revolted that they want to kill my people...

"...All the Yanomami are very worried by this massacre because it
could happen to them too--in Catrimani, in Demini, in Toototobi,
in Posto Yano, In Arac'a, and in other remote villages which do
not have a FUNAI (National Indian Foundation) post, or a
religious mission, or a National Health Foundation
representative."

People interested in defending the rights of Yanomami people
should contact: The Amamaka'a Amazon Network at [phone].

                                      *

MRAAAOW MORE THAN EVER
Nine Months of Animal Liberation Actions

The following is a list of Animal Liberation actions over the past
nine months.

November 8, 1992, Minneapolis, MNSwanson Meats has five trucks
spraypainted with slogans "Meat Is Murder" and "ALF" and then set
on fire, causing $100,000 damage by the Animal Liberation Front
(ALF). The building also had its locks glued.

December 17, 1992, Denver, CO--Lloyds Furs, Irv Ringler Furs, and
Marks Furs were spraypainted with slogans and damaged with paint
bombs by the Paint Panthers.

December 18, 1992,  Aspen, Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone and Denver,
CO--30 fur coats damaged after having red paint sprayed on them by
the Piant Panthers.

December 20, 1992, Washington, DC--Saks Jandel Furs, Skandia Furs,
Furs of Kiszely, Miller Furs, and Rosendorf Furs were damaged with
paintbombs and spraypainted with slogans by the Paint Panthers.

December 25, 1992, Victoria, BC--McDonalds on Pandora Ave. had its
windows smashed and was spraypainted with slogans by the ALF.

January 1, 1993, Victoria, BC--Williams Quality Meats had its locks
jammed with toothpicks and glued shut by the ALF.

January 13, 1993, Cleveland, OH--Cikra Furs splashed with paint and
slogans painted Fur Kills and P.P by the Paint Panthers.

February 8, 1993, New York City--The Fur Vault, Ritz Thrift Shop,
Elizabeth Arden, Bloomingdales, Fendi Bergdorf Goodman, and Harold
J. Rubin Furs damaged with paintbombs and spraypainted slogans "Fur
Shame," "Blood $," "Scum," and "Murderers" by the Paint Panthers.

April 14, 1993, Bethesda, MD--Three McDonalds, two Kentucky Fried
Chickens, and a Honey Backed Ham were spraypainted with the slogan
"Meat Is Murder" by the Meat Free Mission.

April 27, 1993, Maryland--Five vivisectors had their homes
spraypainted with the slogans Animal Killers, "Leave Animals
Alone!", and "Animal Torturer" by the Animal Avengers.

May 4, 1993, Montreal, PQ--Paradise Furs and another fur store were
spraypainted with slogans by the Paint Panthers. Actions against
fur stores have also been reported in South Carolina, and other
actions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Seattle, but no
further details are available yet.

For further information on the animal liberation movement contact:
Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group P.O. Box 75029 Ritchie
P.O. Edmonton, AB, T6E 6K1

                                *


UPS STRUGGLE CONTINUES
By Kieran Frazier and Scott L.

Negotiations between United Parcel Service and the International
Brotherhood [sic] of Teamsters continues as this issue goes to
press.

The contract was scheduled to expire on Aug 1 but has since been
extended indefinitely.  Either side must give a five workday
notice to cut-off negotiations.

But the real battle between workers and capital are waged not in
negotiations but on the hub floors, where tensions are definitely
on the increase.  UPS management has upped the general level of
harassment of the workforce by increasing "auditing" of
employees' "work-methods," and more strictly enforcing work
rules.  Letters have been sent to all workers from UPS regional
directors with the not-so-subtle threat that there will be
lay-offs if the negotiations drag on and package volume drops.
Militants have been fired for distributing Teamsters for a
Democratic Union (TDU) literature on the clock and for wearing
anti-UPS t-shirts that contain profanity.

UPS workers aren't taking all of this lying down.  In Miami
dozens of Teamsters, fists in the air, protested the firing of a
fellow worker and demanded a fair contract.  In Minneapolis
management backed down after interfering with the distribution of
literature.  Contract updates produced by the International
Union, TDU and autonomous local newsletters, such as Part-timers
With An Attitude from Northern California, are being distributed
to workers in practically every UPS hub, often without the help
or even against the will of the anti-reform local Teamster
officials.

A t-shirt craze has caught on.  Black TDUers in Kansas City have
produced a shirt that proclaims, "They can't run the tightest
ship without the galley-slaves" [see graphic Love and Rage
June/July] and sold hundreds.  Another popular shirt from a
Milwaukee local has a fist holding a lightning bolt, with the
slogan, "I don't want to strike but I will!"

If there is a strike at UPS it would be one of the largest and
most significant strikes in recent years.  Anarchists should
consider assisting local strike committees, doing benefit gigs,
and being present at picket lines, ready for action.For more
info:

Love and Rage Minneapolis
PO Box 581354
Minneapolis, MN 55458-1354

                                *

BRITISH FASCISTS ATTACK ANARCHISTS

"The only way we could have been stopped was if our enemies had
smashed us off the street from day one." Adolf Hitler

In three incidents fascists have carried out attacks on anarchist
centers in London. On March 27 masked members of Combat 18
attacked the premises of Freedom Press and Freedom Bookshop
(publishers of Freedom newspaper, the Raven, and anarchist books).
The attackers destroyed a computer and phones and threw stock
around.

On the night of April 12 an attempt was made to burn down the 121
Center at 121 Railton Rd. in Brixton. A white man was spotted at
the back of the building with a can of gasoline and some twisted
paper. He was chased off without doing any damage. Combat 18 is
suspected of being involved in this incident as well. On June 3,
Freedom Press and Freedom Bookshop were attacked again, this time
by arsonists who managed to burn out the bottom floor destroying
the presses and printshop. The bookshop upstairs suffered some
fire damage as well.

Combat 18 is the paramilitary wing of the British National Party,
a Nazi organization that split from the National Front and that
has consistently taken part in violent attacks on Black and Asian
communities. Four Black people have been murdered by the fascists
in London since 1989.

Messages of support and money may be sent to: Freedom Press 84B
Whitechapel High St. London E1 7AX EnglandCove/Mallard Camp in Idaho

                                *

FEDS ATTACK EARTH FIRST!

On Sunday, August 8, 30-40 armed federal agents raided the
Cove/Mallard activist base camp near Dixie, Idaho.  Earth First!
(EF!), the Ancient Forest Bus Brigade, Seeds of Peace, and others
have been maintaining a camp and engaging in nonviolent protest
throughout this summer and last in opposition to roadbuilding and
logging in the Cove and Mallard roadless areas of the Nez Perce
National Forest. These roadless areas are contiguous with the
largest roadless wilderness in the lower 48. Many rare and
imperiled plant and animals species survive here. The 20-acre
base camp was purchased by EF! next to a section of the forests
in under assault.

Nonviolent, direct action defense of the Cove and Mallard
roadless areas began last summer and is ongoing.  Many people
have been arrested  (some of whom face felony charges) in protest
actions aimed at slowing the building of 145 miles of new roads
and logging of over 80 million board feet of timber. However, the
raid on Aug 8 marks an escalation by the Forest Service in their
attempt to quell opposition to the Cove and Mallard timber sales.
Agents held activists at gunpoint while they ransacked the camp,
making off with much communal gear as well as personal items,
money, credit cards and ID's. The Forest Service claims that the
raid was motivated by alleged tree spiking in Cove/Mallard. A
Grand Jury investigation is being convened.

Grand Jury investigations have been used to disrupt the Civil
Rights, American Indian, and Sanctuary movements, and most
recently the Animal Rights movement. Author Rik Scarce has been in
jail about three months now for refusing to testify before a Grand
Jury [see ABC section, this issue]. Organizers are going to need
some serious legal and financial help.

To offer legal help:
Randall Restless [phone] ([e-mail])

Send donations to: EF! Direct Action Fund, PO Box 210, Canyon, CA 94516.

 -- Idaho Forever Wild!!

[Compiled from electronic sources including the Native Forest
Network.]

                                *

TRANSGENDE RAGE AGAINST
THE PSYCHIATRIC ESTABLISHMENT

[This is the text of a speech given by Susan Stryker,
founding member of Transgender Nation, at the demonstration
against the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric
Association on May 23, 1993. The demonstration was organized
by a coalition of mental health/psychiatry survivors as well
as Transgender Nation, who came together to denounce forced
drugging, electroshock, forced institutionalization, and the
attitudes of established psychiatry, who to this day define
transsexuality as a mental illness. The text appeared
originally in Slingshot:]

Like many of you here today, transgendered people --we who
are transsexuals, transvestites, butch women, drag queens,
who are physically intersexed, or who embrace any behavior
or identity that crosses over or moves between the dominant
culture's notion of male and female--we have been abused by
the medical and psychiatric professions. Babies born with
ambiguous genitals have had their bodies surgically altered
without their consent, and often without even the consent of
their parents. Children who exhibit gender or sexual
behaviors that challenge the rigidity of conventional sexual
or gender roles have been subjected to coercive behavior
modification techniques in psychiatric clinics in order to
prevent them from becoming gay or transsexual adults.
Transsexual women who choose to transform their bodies so
that others can see them the way they see themselves have
been raped by the therapists who enabled their genital
reconstruction surgery. We have been compelled to exchange
sexual services for hormones. If we are male-to-female
transsexuals who love other women we must be silent about
our sexual orientation or risk having surgery denied us. If
we are female-to-male gay men we have been told by the
so-called experts on transsexuality that we simply don't
exist.

We have been arrested, institutionalized, drugged, shocked,
beaten, and emotionally assaulted just because we insist on
expressing ourselves the way we choose, leading the lives we
want to live, being the people we want to be. These are
things we transgendered people share with many of the
non-transgendered survivors of psychiatric abuse. We, too
get fucked over by power because we're different. We stand
with you in solidarity to protest. We raise our voices with
yours to demand that this mistreatment stop. We work along
side you to bring these crimes to an end.

But transgendered people are also involved in another kind
of struggle with the psychiatric and medical establishment.
We are engaged in a struggle to gain control of our very
identities. People with male bodies who seek to live as
women or with female bodies who seek to live as men, as well
as people who radically reject their culture's ordering of
gendered reality, are known to exist in many human cultures
around the world, and in all eras of recorded history. And
yet, the medical establishment claims the power to create
us. It writes the books that seek to define us. It controls
the procedures that enable us to live lives of our own
design. Whereas I say that I am achieving my desired gender,
the  doctors say they have assigned it. They do not make us
who we are. We define ourselves. While it is true that
hormone use requires competent monitoring, and genital
reconstruction surgery requires a skilled hand, neither
hormones nor surgery requires administration by
non-transsexuals. We should not have to gain the permission
of people who have a limited comprehension of our lives in
order to do what we want to do with our own flesh.

Transsexuals are the most vulnerable group within the
transgendered population because we renounce, for the rest
of our lives, the privilege of having a "natural" body. It
is significant that there is no diagnostic test for
transsexuality other than self-reporting. The only way the
shrinks know when we're transsexuals is when we walk into
their offices and say, "I'm not happy with the body I was
born into and I want to change my sex." If we insist on this
desire for a few months they'll sign a piece of paper
declaring us to be suffering from "Gender Dysphoria
Syndrome" and referring us to an endocrinologist. If we
perform to their satisfaction in our chosen gender for at
least a year, they'll sign another piece of paper granting
permission for surgery. This assumes that we can afford
expensive therapy or surgical procedures that often are not
covered by medical insurance that we probably don't even
have. This assumes we don't get killed by some scared,
hate-filled bigot because we don't always pass as born
members of our chosen gender. We do not willingly abide
these conditions.

Our situation is simple. Other people--psychiatrists,
therapists, doctors--exercise non-consensual power over our
bodies and our lives. As transsexuals, we do not control the
means of our own production. This has always been the
grounds for resistance, rebellion, and insurrection.

We of Transgender Nation have this to say to the American
Psychiatric Association: We are a gender minority suffering
from medical and psychiatric colonization. You are our
oppressors--you are not our helpers. We are not a disease.
We are not an emotional disorder. We are not crazy. We
should not be in your Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. We
demand removal from your sick list. And we demand as well
the kind of quality health care for our particular medical
needs that every human being deserves as an inalienable
right.

As Queer people, we transsexuals and other gender minorities
draw inspiration from the lesbian and gay liberation
movement that emerged after the Stonewall riots. We cannot
forget, however, like others sometimes do, that Stonewall
began as an act of transgender solidarity when street queens
came to the aid of a female-to-male cross dresser--a
"passing woman"--who was resisting arrest. We protest the
transphobia we encounter in the Queer community that has
co-opted our uprising and made it the symbol of a less
radical cause. But we take heart from the fact that
homosexuality was considered a mental illness by the APA
until 1973, until determined, militant, political activism
succeeded in  overturning the stigmatization and
pathologization of many Queer lives.

As radical anthropologist Gayle Rubin has noted, gay
liberation merely paved the way for a broader movement:
"Sexualities keep marching out of the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual and onto the pages of social history. At
present, several other groups are trying to emulate the
successes of homosexuals. Bisexuals, sadomasochists,
individuals who prefer cross-generational encounters,
transsexuals, and transvestites are all in various states of
community formation and identity acquisition." And, I would
add, we are in various stages of revolt. As transgender
activists, we believe, in the words of our stone butch
comrade Leslie Feinberg, that transgender liberation is a
movement whose time has come.

May our rage inform our actions, and may our actions
transform the world as they have transformed us.

For further information contact:

Transgender Nation
P.O. Box 424280
San Francisco, CA 94142

                                *

Brief Notes:

YOUTH RESIST PSYCHIATRIC ABUSE

Notes From the Inside is a new zine by and for the
growing number of adolescents institutionalized by the
mental "health" system. It is published six times a year by
Students and Teens Opposing Psyciatric Abuse Network. The
STOP Abuse Network claims that in the past five years the
hospitalization of teens has grown 600%. The zine is
available free to those who have no money. Regular
subscriptions are $5 to $10 for youth and $15 to $20 for
adults from:

STOP Abuse Network
47 Cuvier Street
San Francisco, CA 94112

                                *
NETWORK FORMING

Wind Chill Factor is "organizing a decentralized, bottom-up
network of autonomous groups and individuals for
communication and mutual aid." They are distributing a
proposal for this network, based on some of the existing
autonomist networks in Europe. For a copy of this proposal
write to:

Wind Chill Factor
P.O. Box 81961
Chicago, IL 60681

                                *
RADICAL RADIO

An excellent collection of progressive and radical audio
tapes and printed transcripts is available from Alternative
Radio. The recordings are available both by mail and via
satellite for radio stations that wish to broadcast them.
The tapes are $11 and the transcripts are $7. Write for a
free catalogue to:

David Barsamian Alternative Radio
2129 Mapleton
Boulder, CO 80304
tel.: [phone]

                                *

Infoshop Opens in Bay Area

A grand opening was held, on August 13 (Friday), for a new
infoshop in Berkeley. It will be located in the Long Haul
Cafe.The infoshop will offer activists access to a wide
range of publications, computer networking services, meeting
and work space, and just generally the resources needed to
do political work.For more information please contact the
infoshop at:

3124 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley CA 94705
tel: [phone]
email: [e-mail]

                                *

LOVE AND RAGE CALENDAR

Sept. 11
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Anti-Racist March and Conference
Support the Chattanooga 8!

November 9
Remember Pogromnacht (Kristallnacht)
Day of Anti-Fascist Actions

January 15-16, 1994
Martin Luther King Jr. weekend
Love and Rage Federation Council Meeting.
Location to be announced

May 9, 1994
Tear Down the Borders! International Day of Action Against
Immigration Controls\Anti-Immigrant Violence

                                *

OTHER ANARCHIST CONTACTS

This is a short list of some other anarchist resources. We
don't have the space to be comprehensive, so we chose items
which cover a broad range of anarchist ideas and activity

PUBLICATIONS
Alphabet Threat
3018 J Street No. 140,
Sacramento, CA 95816 (0-6$/6 issues)
-a (roughly) bi-monthly, wimmin-centered newspaper, articles
onsexuality, revolt, and other fun stuff

Anarchy
c/o CAL, POB 1446,
Columbia, MO 65205-1446
($12/6 issues/18 months)
-a quarterly journal, also somewhat on the theoretical side,
butwith a situationist angle, news, lots of letters, lots of
periodical reviews

Arm The Spirit
PO Box 6326 Stn A
Toronto, Ontario M5W 1P7
CANADA($10/10 issues)
-an anti-imperialist, autonomist journal, reports on
international movements of armed resistance

Bayou La Rose
c/o Wesley Everest,
Educ. Proj.,
302 N "J" Street No. 3,
Tacoma, WA 98403
-news on native struggles, ecological struggles, and more

Fifth Estate
4632 2nd Ave.,
Detroit, MI 48201($6/4 issues)
-a quarterly paper, somewhat on the theoretical side, with
aprimitivist angle, news, reviews, letters

Ideas and Action
POB 40400,
San Francisco, CA 94140 ($11.50/4 iss)-
the annual publication of the Workers Solidarity Alliance,
an anarcho-syndicalist (anarchist union) group, news and
analysis about labor, the anarchist movement, the world

Industrial Worker
1095 Market Street #204,
San Francisco, CA 94103 ($10/year)
-monthly (roughly) publication of the Industrial Workers of
theWorld (also anarcho-syndicalists), news, letters,
analysis, labormovement stuff

Profane Existence
POB 8722  Mpls, MN 55408 ($9/6 issues)
-an anarcho-punk paper, with band reviews, anarchist news
andhistory, and scene reports

Rebelles
Les Editions Rouges et Noir,
CP 205, succursales "C",
Montreal, Quebec H2I 4K1($10/year 6 issues)
-monthly French-language anarchist paper, lots of news and
analysis

Wind Chill Factor
POB 81961, Chicago, IL 60681 ($15cash/year)
-a creative bi-monthly (roughly) with letters, polemical
tirades, some ongoing discussions, reviews, and Chicago and
international news


SOURCES FOR LITERATURE

Most if not all of these folks will sell you anarchist
literature by mail.

@Distribution
Box 021835,
Brooklyn, NY 110112

AYF Distribution
PO Box 8585,
Mpls, MN 55408

Bound Together Books
1369 Haight St,
San Francisco, CA 94117

Ediciones Antorcha
c/o Chantal López y Omar Cortes,
Apdo. 12-818, CP 03020,
Mexico, DF, MEXICO

Left Bank Books
92 Pike St.,
Seattle, WA 98101

Librarie Alternative
2035 Boulevard St. Laurent
Montreal, Quebec H2X 2T3, CANADA

Perennial Books
PO Box B14,
Montague, MA 01351
Wooden Shoe Books
112 South 20th St.,
Philadelphia, PA 19103

HOTLINES

Chicago: [phone]
Minneapolis: [phone]

                                *
International News & Notes:

ACTIVIST PRIMER ON EX-YUGOSLAVIA
By Bill Weinberg

The mainstream media repeatedly characterizes the war raging in
the Balkans as the result of "ancient ethnic rivalries" which
were kept under the lid by the old communist regime of
Yugoslavia--and have exploded since that regime fell apart. This
is not only a dangerous oversimplification, but it is also
racist--implying that Slavs are inherently violent nationalist
fanatics, in contrast to "civilized" Western Europeans and
Americans. This pseudo-explanation ignores political context--and
the complicity of the Western powers in the destruction of
Yugoslavia.

Yugoslavia had been a multi-national state. Each of its six
constituent republics (Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia,
Macedonia, Montenegro) had a separate national identity shaped,
in large part, by the various imperial powers which have vied for
control over the Balkans for centuries. In the north, Slovenia
and Croatia had been under the control of Germanic powers such as
the Holy Roman Empire, and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and
therefore became Roman Catholic. In the south, Serbia, Montenegro
and Macedonia, under the Byzantine Empire, became Eastern
Orthodox.

Bosnia, a remote and mountainous region between the two spheres
of influence, was never effectively under the control of either,
but developed its own "heresy" with populist and
anti-authoritarian overtones, known as Bogomilism, which the
Catholic powers vigorously tried to exterminate. When the Turkish
Ottoman Empire started its drive to conquer the Balkans in the
Fourteenth Century, they gave the Bogomils support in their
struggle against the Catholics.  When the Turks finally took
power, they were therefore welcomed by the Bogomils--who
subsequently converted to Islam, the official state religion of
the Ottoman Empire. They became today's Bosnian Muslims.

The Serbs, on the other hand, bitterly resented Turkish
domination. The Albanians, a non-Slavic people who were an ethnic
minority in the southern Serbian region of Kosova and had
resented living under Serbian rule, also welcomed the Turks and
accepted Islam. Since Kosova had been the scene of a decisive
1389 battle where the Serbs were defeated by the Turks, it became
an important symbol of Serbian nationalism.

For centuries thereafter, the Balkans were the scene of a massive
power struggle between the Ottoman Empire and the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the Nineteenth Century, both
nationalism and the idea of South Slav or "Yugoslav" unity began
to emerge. Serbia secured its independence as the Ottoman Empire
declined. But the new conflict between Serbia and the
Austro-Hungarian Empire plunged all of Europe into the First
World War in 1914, with the Great Power alliance of Russia,
Britain and the US lining up with Serbia, while the rival
alliance of Germany and the Turks lined up with the
Austro-Hungarians. Croats and Slovenes, conscripted into the
Austro-Hungarian army, were pitted against Serbs.

After the war, the victorious Britain and the US, in cooperation
with local forces that aspired to South Slav unity, created the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia, uniting the  six nations under a common
state for the first time. But the Yugoslav state was built on the
Serbain monarchy, and shortly descended into a dictatorship.

The tensions this system bred exploded with the rise of fascism
and the Second World War. Nazi Germany invaded in 1941, occupying
Serbia and establishing an "independent" puppet state in Croatia
under the Ustashe, a Croatian fascist organization. The Ustashe
established death camps and carried out genocide against
thousands of Serbs, as well as Jews and Romani ("gypsies").

Communist guerrillas known as the Partisans resisted the Nazi
collaborationist forces with the aid of Britain and the USSR. The
Partisans emerged victorious in 1944, and their leader Josip Tito
was installed in power. Tito rebuilt and industrialized
Yugoslavia under a communist dictatorship, but, unlike other
Eastern European regimes, steered a course independent of Moscow.
He was also adept at balancing the rivalries between the six
constituent republics. While the Tito regime did indeed keep a
tight lid on any expression of nationalism, the destruction of
the Yugoslav system following his death in 1980 had to do with
other factors than the mere lifting of that lid.

The first of these was Yugoslavia's economic decline. In the
effort to turn a peasant economy into a major industrial and
military power, the communist regime racked up a $20 billion debt
to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other foreign
sources--a figure comprable to the debts of many Third World
nations. In the 1980s, the IMF called in its chips, and payment
plans imposed harsh austerity on Yugoslavia's workers. Wealthier
Slovenia and Croatia, industrialized with German investment,
started to resent their undue contribution to the federal budget.

But it was Serbian Communist Party higher-up and banking official
Slobodan Milosevic who first openly violated the Titoist taboo on
expressing nationalist sentiment. He launched a campaign which
brilliantly exploited both legitimate class resentment against
bureaucratic elites and Serbian racism against the Albanian
minority in Kosova, linking populism and Serbian nationalism.
This campaign propelled him into the Serbian presidency in 1987.
The Yugoslav National Army, with a largely Serbian officer corps,
closed ranks with Milosevic.

In 1990, as a new deal with the IMF imposed economic "shock
therapy," freezing wages and dramatically cutting back services,
elections were held in each of the republics. Opportunistic
leaders followed Milosevic's lead, exploiting popular anger and
cynically playing the obvious card of nationalism in their bids
for state power. Franjo Tudjman, ex-Communist general and open
nationalist, was elected in Croatia, and used his control of the
press to create nationalist frenzy, much as his ostensible enemy
Milosevic was doing in Serbia. State propaganda scapegoated
ethnic minorities--Serbs in Croatia, Albanians in Serbia--and
posed national purity as the new solution.

In December 1990, Slovenia voted to secede from Yugoslavia in a
national plebiscite. Croatia followed suit a few months later.
But it  was Great Power meddling which propelled the situation
towards war. US defense contractors like Lockheed had long been
selling arms to the Yugoslav communist state, and the Bush
administration had even used Yugoslav banks and arms trading
companies to launder CIA weapons smuggling in the Middle East. In
June 1991, the US sent Secretary of State James Baker to
Belgrade, the Serbian and Yugoslavian capital. Baker warned
Milosevic of the "dangers of disintegration" and urged that
Yugoslavia maintain "territorial integrity." Milosevic took this
as a "green light" to use force to halt Slovene and Croat
secession. Simultaneously, Germany, with substantial investments
in Slovenia and Croatia, was urging the European Community to
recognize their independence--which was taken by the breakaway
republics as a "green light" to secede.

One week later, Slovenia and Croatia declared independence and
Milosevic sent in tanks and troops. The war was on.

Milosevic accepted Slovene independence after ten days of
fighting. But in Croatia, with a large Serbian minority, war
raged until the end of 1991, leaving cities in ruins and the
country independent but divided by large areas of Serb military
occupation. Things were more complicated and bloody still in
Bosnia, where the Muslim plurality was faced with both large
Serbian and Croatian minorities. While initially reluctant to
secede, Bosnia voted to do so when faced with the alternative of
remaining in an openly Serb-dominated Yugoslavia after the
departure of Slovenia and Croatia. Bosnia's Muslim president
Alija Izetbegovic built a multi-ethnic coalition government
before seceding in February 1992. But Serb nationalists under
Radovan Karadzic revolted and, with massive support from
Milosevic, eventually seized 70% of Bosnain territory,
establishing ad hoc concentration camps in abandoned factories
and forcibly expelling Muslims from their villages in their
brutal campaign of "ethnic cleansing." Bosnia's Croats initially
sided with the Muslims against the Serbs, but when the United
Nations started to accept that Bosnia would be permanently
divided, Croats and Serbs closed ranks to expel Muslims from
their remaining areas. Many Bosnian Muslims now suspect a
Tudjman-Milosevic plot to divide Bosnia between Serbia and
Croatia.

Yugoslavia now consists only of Serbia and tiny Montenegro. As
war continues to rage in Bosnia, many anticipate that newly
independent Macedonia may be next to explode. Nationalist
elements in Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece all maintain claims to
Macedonia, and Macedonia also has a large Albanian population.
The Albanians in Kosova continue to suffer persecution and
repression under Serbian domination. In Turkey, nationalist
elements are pushing for intervention on behalf of Balkan Muslim
groups such as the Bosnians and Albanians, while Russian
nationalists are calling for intervention on behalf of the Serbs.
Although this context is consistently ignored by the mass media,
these rival imperial interests could propel the Balkan crisis
into a wider war--possibly on a global scale.

Yet, peace activists, Greens and anarchists are also active each
of the former Yugoslav republics, and are attempting to resist
the consolidation of racism, nationalism and militarism. Their
voices are also consistently overlooked by the mass media, and it
is up to us, their counterparts and natural allies in the West,
to lend them solidarity.*

Adapted from WAR AT THE CROSSROADS: AN HISTORICAL GUIDE THROUGH
THE BALKAN LABYRINTH by Bill Weinberg & Dorie Wilsnack, available
for $1.00 per copy from the Balkan War Resource Group, War
Resisters League, 339 Lafayette St., NY NY 10012, [phone].

* For a list of ex-Yugoslavian anti-war groups send 50 cents to
the above for War and Peace in the Balkans.

--from On Gogol Boulevard News Service

                                *

BOUGAINVILLE RESISTS TOXIC IMPERIALISM
By Matthew Sphinx

Bougainville is a small island in the South Pacific, northeast of
Australia, currently waging a struggle against imperialism and
ecological destruction.

Before imperial domination the island had no formal government.  It
was first invaded by Germany in 1898. The Australian military took
hold of the island from 1914 to 1942 when the Japanese forced them
out.  The islanders at first welcomed the Japanese, seeing in them
an alternative to the European outsiders.  They were to be
disappointed.

After the war Australia regained control of the island. It was
during this period that massive deposits of copper and other
minerals were discovered.  Previous to 1965 land on the island was
controlled by the women; the 1964 discovery of copper  and the
Australians' subsequent parceling off of land to select male
inhabitants changed all this, creating a local ruling class.  The
richest member of this neo-colonial clique was Matthew Cove, later
killed by the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA).  The aspiring
imperialists of Papau New Guinea (PNG) were given hegemony over the
island in 1974, a year before their own official independence from
Australia.

Copper mining on the main island of Papau and on Bougainville
became the mainstay of the PNG economy.  In the early 1980s, PNG
was the second largest producer of copper in the world. Much of the
copper originated on Bougainville in the Panguna open pit copper
mine (the largest open pit copper mine on Earth, accounting for
one-third of the GNP of PNG).  On a spot where once reposed a small
mountain is now a hole 2-1/2 miles wide, 1-1/2 miles long and 1/3
of a mile deep.  Stock in Bougainville Copper Unlimited (BCU) is
owned by the Conzinc Riotinto Coporation Ltd. of Australia (54%),
the PNG government (20%) and the "public" (26%). The miners consist
of imported workers from the island of Papau (85%) and members of
the indigenous Nasioi ethnic group (15%).  Management was provided
by an all white imported staff. Despite this there are
unsubstantiated reports of job action taking place at Panguna
during the 1970s.

Since production began in 1972, the mining operation has been
subject to opposition from the islanders.  Women, rightful owners
of the land, fearing the destruction of their agrarian
permaculture, played an important role in this struggle. BCU has
graciously offered to turn the mine into a lake approximately 25
years from now when the deposit is exhausted. Unfortunatly,
strip-mining has already decimated the ecology of the island.

Bougainville declared independence in 1975, forming the BRA out of
local militias. Weapons were smuggled in, captured from imperialist
troops or constructed out of available materials.  In 1989 many
parts of the island were taken by the BRA and in May of that year
the mine was shut down.  The immense digging machines used at
Panguna were sabotaged. Mountainous conditions and popular support
for the BRA prevented an easy victory for PNG which withdrew its
military from the island.  Bougainville is now subject to a naval
blockade imposed by PNG with the help of Australia. Although
liberated areas on the island are self sufficient in food
production, the blockade does make for a diet of vegetables for the
islanders as fishing boats are  fired upon.

The military of PNG is largely supported by Australia.  The 600
Highlands Regiment, the PNG equivalent to the Green Berets, trains
with the Australian Military.  The PNG military also trains with
the Indonesian Defense Forces, noted for their genocidal behavior
on East Timor.  Fifty million dollars in military aid has been
awarded to PNG by Australia, who sells them weapons at half price.

Lack of medical supplies, particularly malaria preventatives and
treatments, has cost an estimated 5000 lives, 2000 of which were
children.  In May of '92, 100 people were massacred by the PNG in
a foray onto the island. Villages have been strafed and people
forcibly relocated. PNG defense forces often publicly announce
victory only to be contradicted by Radio Free Bougainville's
continuing shortwave broadcasts.

The Red Cross, U.N. observers, journalists and just about anyone
save the PNG military have been denied access to the island.
Bougainville can be reached using a fast motorboat departing from
The Solomon Islands. Australian activists have been machine gunned
while running the blockade to deliver needed supplies.

The Solomon Islands, although officially neutral in the conflict,
refused military aid from Australia (and have no military at all),
and allowed a representative of the BRA, Martin Mariori, on their
soil. Many Solomon Islanders have blood relations Bougainville.
During July of 1993 pressure from PNG and Australia was levelled
against the Solomon's administration to put a stop to pro-BRA
activities there.

Anti-BRA forces on the island have formed "contra" groups entirely
supported from without by PNG and Australia.  These groups are
aligned with interim authorities who have been promised aid for
their complicity. However, on July 30 of this year these interim
authorities tried to negotiate a seperate agreement with the BRA
with an eye towards an independent Bougainville.  This meeting,
frowned upon by outside agents of repression took place in Honiara,
capital of the Solomon Islands.

Comprised mostly of members of the Nasioi ethnic group, the BRA
professes no western-identified ideology and is led by a man named
Moses Avini.  Some support for the BRA and/or the people of
Bougainville is taking shape in Australia, in spite of near news
blackout. Hopefully news of and support for the Bougainvillians
will spread to the U.S. and elsewhere.  -- OGB News Service

For further information contact:
Neither East Nor West
c/o Matthew Sphinx
P.O. Box 853
New York, NY 10009
[phone]
                                *


JAPANESE ANTI-RACISTS FIGHT DEPORTATIONS
By N. Kuro

In the name of "protecting azaleas," Japanese police and
immigration authorities carried out a raid on immigrants in
Tokyo's Yoyogi Park on May 9. Although the 200 police who
were mobilized for this attack anticipated a simple
operation, they were met with unexpected resistance from
Japanese anti-racists. Anarchists, working with the
anti-racist group Inoken, took part in this action.

The anti-racists, numbering about 20, scuffled with police,
kicking, spitting and throwing stones to prevent the
immigrants, mostly Iranians, from being taken away in
paddywagons. At one point, a woman activist took her shirt
off to the horror of police and onlookers. When a paddywagon
tried to drive off, activists sat down in front of it to
block its path. 50 police were required to clear the path.

Despite the resistance, when the day was over, 102
immigrants were arrested, the largest number ever in such a
sweep. Most of them were promptly deported.

Yoyogi Park had been an important meeting place for many
foreign workers in Japan. Every Sunday the park became
"Little Teheran," with up to 5,000 foreigners, mostly
Iranians but also Chinese, Philippinos, Malaysians and other
nationalities, gathering to relax and socialize. These
foreign workers, many of them undocumented, are
institutionally marginalized in this extremely racist and
xenophobic society. The park was the one free, open meeting
place where they could come together.

Since April, however, the police and park authorities have
been fencing off areas of the park, claiming that this was
necessary for the replanting of damaged azalea shrubs. It
was clearly a move to eliminate foreigners from the park.
Throughout the park, threatening signs were put up in
English, Chinese and Farsi stating that undocumented
residents will be "strictly dealt with." The May 9 raid was
the final successful push by the authorities in eradicating
the park as a meeting place for these immigrants.

This current assult has taken place in the context of a
larger assult on immigrant workers. During Japan's economic
prosperity, undocumented foreign workers were given the most
dangerous, lowest paying and most grueling jobs. Now, with
the recession, these workers are considered expendable and
are being actively targeted for deportation. While the media
smears the immigrant community as a nest of crime and drugs,
this most recent assault serves as a warning and a threat to
the immigrant communities.

Japan's far right is emboldened by such actions, which they
consider a confirmation of their anti-foreigner positions.
The anti-immigrant attacks sweeping Europe give both the far
right and the government the moral encouragement to step up
attacks on Japan's own immigrants and to see these actions
as part of a global trend. The established left, meanwhile,
has almost completely ignored the issue, leaving opposition
in the hands of younger activists such as those of Inoken.

                                *

[Editorial note: "black" is not capitalized in the following
article at the request of the author. Love and Rage usually
capitalizes Black but deferred to the author in this case out of
respect for his long history of committed work against racism. For
further info please contact the author--PG]


A WINDOW ON CUBA--AND THE WORLD
By Noel Ignatiev

Castro, the Blacks, and Africa, by Carlos Moore, published in 1988
by UCLA Press, provides valuable insight into the history and
present character of Cuban society, as well as into recent turns
in world politics.  Here, in outline, is the argument:

1. The Castro government is the latest of the bourgeois white
regimes that have ruled Cuba since independence from Spain at the
turn of the century, and its racial policies, even where they
appear distinctive, are determined by the same considerations that
governed those of its predecessors.  The Creole bourgeoisie,
largely of Spanish origin, is squeezed between US imperialism and
the working class, which is made up of the descendants of slaves.
Its radical sectors adopt a paternalistic attitude toward the
Afro-Cubans, viewing them as primitive and in need of guidance.
Thus in their early years in power Fidel Castro and the white
"revolutionaries" around him insisted that the Revolution had
abolished color discrimination and that any attempt to raise the
race problem or to treat Afro-Cubans as a distinct constituency
was "divisive" and even "counter-revolutionary."

2. Cuba's Africa policy in the 1970s, when it intervened
militarily in Angola and the Horn of Africa, was part of its
continuing attempt to develop its own base in world politics, in
order to reduce its dependence on the Soviet Union.  It manifested
the same contempt for the dignity and aspirations of the peoples
of Africa that it showed toward Afro-Cubans at home.  However, it
led the ruling class to shift from official color-blindness to a
no-less-repressive color-awareness.

3. Cuba's internal and external policies influenced and
reacted on each other, but their net effect was to leave the
Afro-Cuban population at the bottom of society.

From the moment it determined it was on a collision course with
the US, the Castro regime faced problems in courting black
revolutionaries abroad, including the US, while vigorously
opposing any autonomous black expression in Cuba.  Thus, the 1967
visit to Havana of the main spokesman for Black Power, Stokely
Carmichael, was accompanied by an outpouring of propaganda
explaining why the situation of "our blacks" was different from
the US and why, therefore, Black Power was an inappropriate slogan
for Cuba.  The fiction of color-blindness was carried to the
extreme of refusing to publish census statistics on race, and of
regularly and seriously understating the proportion of the
population of African descent (which Moore estimates at one-half).
Underlying the official drive to increase production was the
effort to intensify the exploitation of the black Cubans.  While
reminding Afro-Cubans of how much the Revolution had done for
them -- as if opening the beaches, etc. was a gift instead of a
right which Afro-Cubans had won for themselves, and moreover as if
access to public facilities was what the black soldiers had fought
for -- Castro called upon them to "Produce as much as your slave
grandfather."

Throughout the 1960s the Cuban leadership had directed its
external efforts toward what it called Latin America.  When its
policy of exporting the Revolution in the Western Hemisphere
showed itself to have stalled for the time being, it shifted its
attention toward Africa.  The decision to launch the Africa
adventures forced the ruling class to introduce an "affirmative
action" policy for black Cubans -- as diplomats and soldiers in
Africa.  (Castro justified military intervention there by speaking
of the "African blood" flowing through the veins of the Cuban
people; as Moore points out, the US could justify its own meddling
on the same grounds.) To aid in enlisting Afro-Cubans to carry out
its plans, the Castro group brought more black faces into visible
positions in the state.  None of these innovations showed official
approval of self-directed Afro-Cuban activity, any more than do
Colin Powell, Clarence Thomas, or the black mayors of US cities.
(Cuba is still behind the US in numbers of blacks in government.)
For example, at the same time it was trumpeting its solidarity
with Africa, the regime prevented a group of Cuban intellectuals
from issuing a manifesto on Afro-Cuban identity at one of the
international cultural congresses it was so fond of sponsoring.

Moore recounts resistance to the repressive white regime,
including an underground black organization, and the tremendous
strength of the African religions in Cuba, which paralyzed the
port of Havana in a 24-hour strike.  (By his account, the African
religions fulfill much the same function they did in slavery days
there and, for that matter, in the US, and also have many
non-black adherents.  They are the targets of an official and
multi-faceted campaign of cultural assassination.) He reports that
US communist leader Angela Davis's 1972 visit was the occasion of
a tremendous outpouring of Afro-Cuban self-assertion, not because
of anything she said, but because she was a black woman with
"natural" hair -- something which up until then was labelled deviant
behavior -- who could not be dismissed as an imperialist agent.

In the 1962 Appendix to The Black Jacobins (New York: Vintage,
1963), entitled "From Toussaint L'Ouverture to Fidel Castro,"
C.L.R. James wrote:

"The sugar plantation has been the most civilizing as well as the
most demoralizing influence in West Indian development.  When
three centuries ago the slaves came to the West Indies, they
entered directly into the large-scale agriculture of the sugar
plantation, which was a modern system.  It further required that
the slaves live together in a social relation far closer than any
proletariat of the time.... The Negroes, therefore, from the very
start lived a life that was in its essence a modern life.... The
sugar plantation dominated the lives of the islands to such a
degree that the white skin alone saved those who were not
plantation owners or bureaucrats from the humiliations and
hopelessness of the life of the slave.  That was and is the
pattern of West Indian life....  Cuba is the most West Indian
island in the West Indies."

While others have pointed out the bureaucratic and statist
deformities of the Castro regime, rarely has the link between
color and class struggle in Cuba been explained so lucidly.
Taking my lead from James, in my own 1976 work, No Condescending
Saviors, I wrote:

"The point is that, for Cuba, the scarcity of blacks in leading
positions cannot be ascribed to a 'cultural lag' to be overcome
through education, etc.... The Afro-Cubans were, prior to the
Revolution, the most proletarianized sector of the population, the
sector most familiar with the technology and organizational
principles of modern industry, the sector most 'disciplined,
united, organized by the very mechanism of capitalist production
itself.' To the degree to which they are denied predominance in
Cuban society--to that degree is the proletariat kept out of
power."

Castro, the Blacks, and Africa is such a rich mine of information
that it is impossible here to list all the finds.  There is dirt
on every world leader of the period, including Nkrumah (Ghana),
Sekou Toure (Guinea), Nasser (Egypt), and various "freedom
fighters," all of whom sought to use the struggle of the peoples
of Africa to advance their own factional interests.  The figure
who comes off best is Malcolm X, who, while hoping to get help
from Cuba, was always cautious in his attitude toward Castro.
According to Moore, at the time of his death Malcolm was trying to
recruit an international black force to fight against the Belgian
puppet Tshombe in the Congo.  Che Guevara led a military force
there, in an early testing of African waters by the Castro
government, but comes off badly in Moore's account, for his
attitude of disdain toward the African revolutionaries he was
attempting to manipulate.

The book ought to be required reading for every political science
class in the country.  It is a laboratory demonstration of the
total cynicism of world politics, in which the most eloquent
expressions of high ideals are simply cloaks for venal interests.
It is also a case study in the use of language--how world leaders
say what they mean, but it is necessary to know how to read them.

Moore is the son of Jamaican-Barbadian parents who emigrated to
work in the cane fields (hence his surname); he left Cuba shortly
after Castro came to power, when it became clear that the regime
would not tolerate any autonomous Afro-Cuban expressions.  In the
1970s he published a three-part article in Soulbook, in which he
exposed the white, anti-working class character of the Castro
regime, and attacked the very notion of "Latin" America as a
Creole ideology aimed at concealing the African roots of Caribbean
culture and of Cuban nationality in particular.

Castro, The Blacks, and Africa shows the value of placing the
black worker at the center of analysis.  The black worker is the
historical antipode to capital.  In those parts of the world
bordering the Atlantic basin, "I'm black and I'm proud" is the
closest thing heard to a modern rendition of "Workers of all
countries, unite!" The power of the slogan reaches beyond those of
African descent: whoever adopts the standpoint of the black worker
will not go far wrong.

[The writer is one of the editors of Race Traitor: a journal of
the new abolitionism (available for $6 postpaid from PO Box 603,
Cambridge, Mass. 02140.)]
                                *


CUBAN DISSIDENTS REJECT WASHINGTON/MIAMI CONTROL
By Bill Weinberg

Rolando Prats Paez of the Havana-based dissident group Corienta
Socialista Democratica (Democratic Socialist Current) recently
scored a media coup with a New York Times [Op-Ed] piece calling
for lifting the US embargo of Cuba--a view which is heresy for the
monolithic Miami-based right-wing exile establishment dominated by
Jorge Mas Canosa's Cuban American National Foundation. But Prats
says what his group stands for is "ni Castrismo ni Mas Canismo"--
they reject the autocracies of both Fidel Castro and his rightist
arch-rival.

The Democratic Socialist Current finds harsh challenges to this
iconoclastic position from both sides. Their literature is
produced and copied entirely by typewriter, and distributed by a
hand-to-hand network, as samizdat was in Eastern Europe. Yet the
group sees accepting support from foreign governments or outside
interests as a threat to its basic principles.

In 1991, members of the Democratic Socialist Current launched the
General Cuban Workers' Union (UGTC by its Spanish acronym) to
provide legal and political support for employees in dispute with
state managers. Among the founders was Vladimiro Roca, a Cuban Air
Force fighter pilot and economist who is also the son of Blas
Roca--longtime head of Cuba's Communist Party and a titanic figure
in the nation's history. Vladimiro's 1991 press conference
announcing that he was joining Democratic Socialist Current sent
shockwaves throughout Cuba's political establishment.

Within a year, the UGTC leadership had been hijacked by a group
working in cooperation with both the Cuban American National
Foundation and the American Institute for Free Labor Development,
the AFL-CIO's international wing which has already gained control
over worker and peasant movements in El Salvador, elsewhere in
Latin America, and now ex-Communist countries. But Roca and others
who remained loyal to the Democratic Socialist Current would have
none of it. They split and formed the UGTC-I. The "I" stands for
"Independiente". Independent from what? "The United States
government," chuckles Rolando Prats.

Democratic Socialist Current founder Elizardo Sanchez is also
president of the unofficial Comision Cubana de Derechos Humanos y
Reconcilación Nacional (Cuban Commission for Human Rights &
National Reconciliation). His human rights activities landed him a
two-year prison term in 1990--and won him recognition as a
"prisoner of conscience" by Amnesty International. Released three
months before his term expired, Sanchez was recently allowed to
leave Cuba for a speaking tour in Europe and the Americas--a move
which can be credited to international pressure. However, since
his release, Sanchez has been targeted for violent harassment in
Havana by the pro-government "spontaneous" street mobs known as
the Rapid Reaction Brigades.

More radical anarchist and anti-militarist groups linked to the
semi-taboo punk youth culture also exist in Cuba--such as
Movimiento Pacifista Solidaridad y Paz (Solidarity & Peace
Pacifist Movement), several of whose members were sentenced to
prison after a protest at the Department of State Security in
1991. However, the absence of a scene in which young people can
meet and network in a free atmosphere has prevented such small and
marginal groupings from developing into a real movement. With
Cuba's deep economic crisis--the result of both the US embargo and
the collapse of the Soviet bloc--even bars, clubs and restaurants
have been shut down. Virtually the only ones which continue to
function are those which cater to the tourist trade--which only
take foreign currency and are effectively off-limits to Cubans.
Meetings in people's homes are promptly reported to the
authorities by the state-controlled neighborhood watch groups, the
Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs).

UGTC and UGTC-I continue to exist as rival alternatives to the
official state-controlled workers' organizations in Cuba. Both
remain small and marginalized. Prats calls UGTC-I an "auxiliary
force for groups trying to open a political space in Cuba."

Unfortunately, the US left is as blind as the elites of Havana and
Miami to the existence of Cuban political forces outside of the
two ossified opposing blocs. This blindness is likely to play into
the hands of Mas Canosa and his ilk when cracks finally start to
emerge in Fidel's grip on power. Elements such as UGTC-I and the
Democratic Socialist Current which insist on charting an
autonomous course deserve the solidarity of like-minded stateside
activists.

Democratic Socialist Current can best be reached through their
Miami contact:

Tony Santiago
1040 S.W. 27th Ave.
Miami, FLA 33135

--from On Gogol Boulevard News Service

                                *


              REMEMBER POGROMNACHT ("KRISTALLNACHT")

                         NOVEMBER 9, 1993
                    DAY OF ANTI-FSCIST ACTIONS

"The only way we could have been stopped was if our enemies
had smashed us off the street from day one."
--Adolf Hitler

"Wherever you find injustice, the proper form of politeness
is attack."
--T-Bone Slim

November 9 is the anniversary of the night that Nazis
attacked Jews in their homes and shops across Germany. It is
also the anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall came down.
For several years it has been a day of fascist street
demonstrations and violent attacks in Germany. More recently
it has also become a day for anti-fascist actions in Europe.

November 9 is commonly known as "Kristallnacht," the night of
broken glass. Much more was broken that night than glass, and many
anti-fascists in Germany, refusing to use Nazi euphemisms, refer
to November 9 as Pogromnacht, the night of the pogrom (an
organized massacre, especially of Jews).

We are seeing a resurgent fascist movement in North America: from
the activities of the Ku Klux Klan and Nazi skinheads to the
efforts of Operation Rescue, the right is increasingly willling to
take their politics into the street. Over 25 people have been
killed by Nazi skinheads in the U.S. in the past several years. As
in Europe, these fascist forces are playing on widespread racist
and anti-immigrant feelings among white people. They are using
"family values" as a club to beat down women and drive Queer
sexuality back into the closet.

Last year on November 9 anti-fascist actions took place in several
North American cities. We want to see November 9 become a regular
day of anti-fascist action on this side of the Atlantic. We are
calling for a day of anti-fascist actions this year on November 9
to demonstrate the existence of an anti-fascist movement that is
willing to take to the streets and challenge the fascists. We are
urging people everywhere to organize anti-fascist demonstrations,
large and small, against appropriate targets or simply in the
streets where we can be seen and heard.

For further information contact:

Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation
P.O. Box 3606
Oakland, CA 94609-0606

Love and Rage
P.O. Box 853 Stuyvesant Station
New York, NY 10009
[phone]

Anti-Racist Working Group
P.O. Box 44563
Detroit, MI 48244
                                *


Grrrl Culture:

FIERCE PUSSY FEST INTERVIEW

[The Fierce Pussy Festival is an all- day festival taking place
on August 28 in Tompkins Square Park on the Lower East Side of
New York City. The two main organizers of the event, Karissa and
Tatiana were interviewed by Love and Rage in late July.]

Q: What's the thinking behind Fierce Pussy Fest?

Tatiana: The festival will start at 12 o'clock and will include
tabling by political groups and services, AIDS organizations,
healthcare groups, people who work on all kinds of different
issues, we're trying to contact as wide a range as possible of
people, and invite them to come let people from the neighborhood
know that they're out there, sort of as a resource. It'll also
include a whole slew of strange and bizarre things, like a six ft
pussy, a six ft foam pussy, you can get your picture taken with
your head coming out of it, the fierce pussy palace.

Karissa: We have fire eaters and fire breathers.

Tatiana: Whatever artwork wimmin want to bring. There are a
couple of wimmin who are thinking of doing installations,
bringing out artwork, drawings, paintings, its wide open, totally
uncensored, we're just trying to encourage people to participate
however they want, we're leaving it up to the people there.

Q: Its not just primarily music?

Tatiana: The concert will begin at three, the festival will take
place in the park all day long, the concert has been allotted
four hours. The festival will include bands, wimmin artists and
poets, dance, a couple of speakers, but we've really been careful
to stay away from lots of speeches cause we really feel like
people get bored with them, especially around here the same
people get up on stage and say the same damn thing year after
year.

Karissa: I personally feel that art precedes politics anyway, and
a lot of politics is catch up. The whole idea of a stage is
really weird to begin with, kind of a western concept of
observing art as opposed to participating in it. I think that the
origins of art are more entwined in the rhythms of every day
life, art is something used to heal people, to express something,
to bring a community together, its something that people
participate in.

I don't know how we even got to this point where we feel like you
go on stage and make a speech and that that's what defines a
political gathering, we feel like having the Fierce Pussy Fest is
a political act in itself, naming it the Fierce Pussy Fest, was a
political statement, we're saying fuck you, we're gonna use that
word, we're gonna decide what it means for us. Its a really bad
formula to give a speech to somehow organize, its not a good
formula for outreach to just be inundated with speeches.  We want
to encourage people to bring their tables, so that there's a
human being there that can talk to you and give you information.
We will have speakers but we're looking for a couple of people
whose lives are political statements, Valerie Jimenez, who's HIV
positive, who lost her husband to AIDS recently, she's a mother,
a Puerto Rican womyn who's lived in the neighborhood for many
years, and is an activist, she's donating all her time to Housing
Works, her life to me is a very high  political statement,
whatever defines political, she is really out there swinging, so
we're giving her five minutes to talk about that.

Tatiana: I think that also part of what led us on to launching
this project, for me, I felt like everywhere I looked I saw these
examples of wimmin being abused, wimmin being disrespected, all
around me. It was making me crazy, it was making me feel so
powerless and so angry, so I decided to turn it around and make
something that I wanted to see. I've experienced the most
uplifting, creative moments with other wimmin, I really think we
share something, or we can.

I feel like my creative energy or whatever you call it is very
sensitive and very easily hurt, you have to be feeling very safe
and confident to access it. We're hoping that that will happen
here in the park. We're talking about wimmin wimmin wimmin. I
just wanted to point out that there are about five or six men
working behind the lines that don't really want a lot of credit
or glory but who have made this thing possible, with donations
and computer time and photocopies, there are two kinds of people
who say they wanna help: people who offer very real practical
help, and then there's the other end of it of men who somehow
want to support it by being on stage, and taking the time away
that we've set aside for wimmin to be creative (laugh).

Q: How did you decide to organize the Fierce Pussy Fest?

Karissa: So we were having breakfast it was the day after the
smoke-in [a marijuana smoke-in in central park that turned into a
riot.-PG.] We were complaining about the smoke-in to each other,
we were disappointed actually that so many white men, middle-aged
white men, one group after the other it was almost a parody. It
was like they were trying to put on the middle-aged white men's
show, and I personally empathized with the people who threw
things at the stage because I know a lot of them probably had
aspirations to be on stage there that day.  They probably could
do a better job, people in the audience. They had the banner from
last year with the number painted the next year.

Tatiana: Its an example of what happens a lot of the time when
the same group of people does the same thing year after year
after year, doesn't really think of anything new, doesn't really
make an effort to say something new or to re-examine what they're
saying or to approach new problems or approach problems in a
different way, you know its laziness I guess.

Karissa: This is what led up to that. We were pretty depressed
actually, number one there were no wimmin on the stage.

Tatiana: That was the main thing we were pissed off at.

Karissa: We pretty much felt like the people in the crowd, where
are the artists that speak to me? Cause they do exist, there are
people in this neighborhood that are hauling their equipment
around all over this city and other places, getting mediocre gigs
and very blue-collar, they're hard working people, where were
they? We've been inundated with people wanting to play. We wish
we had eight hours, they do exist in huge amounts, wimmin with a
message, with great talent that want to be heard.  So we really
didn't have any problem finding them.

Q: how do you see wimmin being treated within the radical scene
on the Lower East Side?

Karissa: Ignored.  I think there are a few very powerful wimmin
that have to almost fistfight to get their two cents in. I'm
tired of being talked over, because I'm not willing to scream in
somebody's face to get my point across. Yes I will resort to that
if I must but not on a daily basis. Its just this kind of drunken
brawl happening, that turns off a lot of wimmin.

Tatiana: Another thing is that some of our most vehement
opposition has been from wimmin.

Karissa: There was a collective, the Fierce Pussy, the lesbian
visibility wheat pasting/activism collective. I swear, on my
mother's grave, that we did not know about them. I've seen their
posters, like can you spot the dyke in this picture, there are
six of them, and they're a white middle class lesbian group,
collective, as far as we know, that's the impression. The lesbian
avengers told us about them because it was very unclear by their
posters that they were called Fierce Pussy, they were very
elusive and secretive, and we had a hard time.  Finally we
received a fax and it was basically "WE ARE Fierce Pussy how dare
you use our name, we spent three months trying to come up with
that name." It took us three seconds, it was already in our
vocabulary, "we want some fierce pussies on stage."  I've seen it
around. We were horrified, it was a very nasty, snippy, fax,
"choose another name", we apologized and asked to meet them, no
response for 4 weeks.

They didn't believe that we had never heard of them. We got a
legal letter "cease and desist, Fierce Pussy is not in the public
domain, you're gonna have to turn over proceeds" from the free
concert, they claimed to own the name.  We were shocked by being
attacked this way by a lesbian visibility collective. I thought
the male supremacists would come after us for sure but no, it was
the lesbian visibility collective.

There are a couple of people with whom we've had conversations
about the word pussy and they've been uncomfortable with the
word, mostly wimmin. At the gay pride march, the first thing we
saw was this huge american flag and all these military people
marching in the parade, I was sickened. and we pretty much split
from the parade all together and we went down to the piers and we
met a couple of people, wimmin from Harlem and the Bronx and
Brooklyn and they were all kinda hanging out it was like the
unofficial home girl section of the parade. We didn't have to
enlighten these wimmin about the idea they were very open to the
idea of Fierce Pussy, the word fierce is very slang and it comes
from those areas it was great.

Tatiana: They knew exactly what we were talking about. If we
stepped out of that zone we would get a lot of white middle class
people pinching up their face saying "Pussy?? Pussy? oh! oh!" and
they'd be really upset by the word pussy, it was really funny,
you could really tell the class difference, nobody there had to
be educated about Fierce Pussy.

Q: Have you done other political work before this?

Karissa: This is your first project darlin'!

Tatiana: I don't  have any organizing experience whatsoever!  We
just jumped into this.

Karissa: There was St. Patricks Day. We got arrested.

Tatiana: We just went down to check it out, we weren't even with
the ILGO people [The Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization has been
struggling for the right to march in the St. Patricks day Parade
for several years -PG].

Karissa: There were about 25 people there, after the ILGO people
got arrested. We were just a lively crew who didn't really want
to get arrested and we were chanting "we love men in skirts"  and
"we put the gay in gaelic." We were just being really silly and
theatrical and we were actually in the crowd with the Irish folks
who were giving us funny looks but they weren't really in any way
threatened by us, we weren't really threatened by them, it was a
kind of coexistence that was happening. And then the police came
and surrounded us and arrested us.  Disorderly conduct, at a
parade. I thought chanting and singing was proper parade
behavior! I don't know, maybe they've redefined that.

Q: You talked about the Fierce Pussy Fest as a political act, how
do you think of yourselves politically?

Karissa: I don't really align myself, a lot of people would
probably lump me as an anarchist because its kind of the none of
the above category. But I think personally, this is not Fierce
Pussy Fest or anything, just personally, that there are a handful
of rich white men in the United States of America that have more
power than anybody has ever had in the history of human beings on
this planet and they have names, addresses, so I guess you would
consider me a revolutionary. There's a very clear target.

Tatiana: Do I think of myself as a revolutionary? Of course I do.
A revolution is gonna happen or even is about to happen or is
already happening. I'm not one of those people who feels like I
want to go out there and control the masses, direct the masses
down this particular road or that particular road. I'm gonna be
interested to see what happens. I think it'll probably be ugly
and scary. I mean its not gonna be like a dream like walking off
into the sunset hand in hand forming some new society. I think
its inevitable that the hierarchies that we're living under now
are going to crumble because they can't maintain the weight of
all of their mistakes. There is no way that it can go on.

Karissa: We're on the edge of a crumble, I can feel it in the
air. I wanna say one thing as to the true revolutionary in the
analytical sense is supposed to have faith in the masses. I don't
necessarily know what that means except that I was in Oakland,
California during the earthquake in 1989, and the drug dealers
that were on the corner were suddenly directing traffic with
flashlights, there were groups of people who went and saved a lot
of people on the freeway that collapsed before the state even had
a chance to even figure out what had happened. There were rock
climbers, residents of the area who were climbing on this shit
that was all crumbing down and they saved so many lives until the
state came and they cordoned it off and they put in their trucks
and their lights and they said this is unstable, no  one can come
on here and for three days you could hear people screaming and,
that's documented, that's not folklore, people died because of
the states inability to act and their inability to have the
people who were reacting deal with the situation. I just have so
much faith in the world now after and experience like that. I
just feel like people rise to the occasion in ways that we won't
even get to see until the opportunity arises.

Q: How do you feel that the Fierce Pussy Fest plays into your
ideas about revolution?

Karissa: I feel its a gradual process and its a mental process
and I feel that art is a huge part, creativity is a huge part of
that process, and I think that a lot of the problems with, I
don't know, movements or surges in the past is that they
separated them somehow. Art was something bourgeois. No, its a
life thing, not to be such a hippie but its just so necessary so
I think art precedes politics. We're telling everybody that's
gonna get up on that stage we're not gonna censor you, we're
telling everybody that's bringing their stuff down that we're not
gonna try to control you in any way shape or form, I think that
is revolutionary, the fact that we're just gonna do all the dirty
nasty horrible office phone calls letters just this awful stuff I
would never take as a job. I would never get paid for this. I
would tell them to go to hell, you're oppressing me!
Q: What do you think of riot grrrl, and things like that?

Karissa: We know some of them and actually they're gonna help us
with some of the stuff. I read one of riot grrrl's statements the
other day and I thought it was excellent, they didn't claim to
own the word riot grrrl. Its just a word that applies to a group
of people that are working loosely, independently or with friends
or in small groups on whatever projects they're working on. Its a
support net for wimmin artists. I thought that was a great
statement to go from because that's kind of what we're attempting
as well, a feeling of freedom and openness, you can interpret it
however you want you can go at it whatever way you want, you
don't have to call yourself a member of one particular group or
another to be valid.
                                *

                           POET GRRRL!

[These poems were written by members of Riot Grrrl - New York City]


Sergio, Was His Name

She was, i was, she was 13, girl of 13, I was 13.
He said "obedience is important"
I was girl of 13, i was 13, 13 13 13 13 13 13 years old
He dominated me. i was 13...she was.
He replaced me - - - - - - - -  robbed my soul.
i only have so much to spare, but he, he, he,he pushes in to
me. first with his dry, cold hand.
then with his scorching penis. then with his baby.
inside me inside me!!! Was it rape?! i said no. i
swear i did. i said "please for Godsake, in God's
name, for the love of GOD NO! NO! NO!!"
But, he covered my peach tinted lips... he
stuffed his forceful tongue into my mouth.
i was stiff, in pain. in frozen motion, while
he fucked me. i cried salty, plain tears.
--Claudia von Vacano.

                                *

it's deep inside me... it started when i ran away
from home... it grew after the accident, the
accident that left him convulsing, shaking,
bleeding death...next to me and it, death, fell
onto my lap. i bleed too, hot burning tears.
My face is bloody, scarred. The stitches are
not skin deep... they tie me up. i'm knarled,
tangled by those stitches, those thoughts. the
shadows of incest, a fathers love under the
poison of alcohol. the reason it started.
--Claudia von Vacano

                                *

men and sex and women and fucking
i think i've spent no time in coming
i think i've spent no time in loving
men and sex and women and fucking
and women and men and sex and fucking
and sex and sex and sex and fucking

fuck and fuck and fuck
and come and come and come
suck my left one
suck my big one
suck and come and come and fuck

a national obsession with fucking?
a personal obsession with fucking?

harlequin romance novels
and silhouette romance novels
and, have you ever read any judith krantz?
she writes really good trash
telling women to be sensual
women to be sexual
to be yielding, complying, giving
never receiving
fucking
fucking
fucking
men

men and sex and women and fucking
and women and men and sex and fucking
and fuck and fuck and fuck and fucking!

so, what is the single girl to do?
read cosmo?
vogue magazine?
are they going to tell me how to masturbate?
how about ejaculate?
they probably don't even think what we do that.
i think that there is a third sex
the sex of print
the sex of images
the sex of audio visual america that tells us how to live,
what to do, where to shop and when to fuck

men and sex and women and fucking
the old ins and outs
wham bam thank you ma'am
men
and sex
and society
and industry
have destroyed women
not to mention men

so who do you fuck?
yeah, who do you fuck?

i've decided to fuck myself.
i've decided to play with my own pussy.
play me sara, play me, she says to me
and i say sure.
--Sara Valentine

                                *


                Sun, Sand, and Social Revolution:

              THE SAN DIEGO LOVE AND RAGE CONFERENCE
                          by Matt Black

The Love and Rage Network had its fourth conference in San Diego
from July 7 to July 11. A number of important decisions were made
and projects started. The happening anarchists of 915 E Center
hosted the conference, and the wonderful folks at the
Germinal/Che Cafe at University of California at San Diego
provided meeting and sleeping space, a great kitchen, and a place
to prepare all the donated food, arranged by Food for Thought.

About seventy-five people attended from the US, Canada, and
Mexico, with ones and twos from South Africa, England, Ireland,
and other far-off places. A number of people at the conference
had not come to participate in the Love and Rage decision-making.
Although this has caused problems in the past, it seemed to work
out fairly well this year, and numerous workshops, caucuses, and
trips to the beach were organized by people who were there
largely to meet other people and network (small n).

The gender balance of the conference was disappointing. About 1/4
of those in attendance were women. While there were a number of
people of color, the conference was largely white, and aside from
the discussion of the activities in Mexico, conducted almost
exclusively in English. The vast majority of participants were in
their 20s. Finally, although a majority of participants came from
middle class backgrounds, working class participation was higher
than in the past.

From Network to Federation

The Love and Rage Network is now the Love and Rage Revolutionary
Anarchist Federation. The change in name reflects some of the
major changes that were made at the San Diego conference. The
decision to change the name took place on the last day of the
conference, so throughout this report I refer to the Network when
I am talking about the conference's discussions, and to the
Federation when I am talking about our future plans.

Each day of the conference was divided into a morning session
devoted to Love and Rage Network business of some sort, and an
afternoon session devoted to workshops and other meetings. The
first two morning sessions were very productive.

Report from Mexico and the Future of Amor y Rabia.

Ana and Gustavo from Mexico gave an exciting report on the
situation in Mexico City, where they have built Love and Rage
into a militant presence in street demonstrations. The Mexico
City group has been publishing a monthly Spanish-language edition
of Love and Rage (Amor y Rabia) since the beginning of the year.
It was decided that Love and Rage will now be a 20-page
English-language newspaper, and that the Spanish edition will be
produced by the production group in Mexico City and distributed
in the U.S. instead of publishing a Spanish-section of the paper
out of New York. It looks like the NY office will distribute Amor
y Rabia in the US, Europe, Africa and Asia, although another
group or office may take over this task in the future. Amor y
Rabia is expected to come out monthly, with one issue having
coordinated content with the English-language Love and Rage (some
translations, some original articles but aimed at a  continental
and international audience), and the next being autonomous,
mostly aimed at an audience in Mexico and Latin America.

Focus on Anti-Racism/Police Brutality and Immigration

Most of the second day's morning session was taken up with the
discussion of what areas of work Love and Rage should focus on
over the next year. A wide range of possible areas were
suggested. It was understood that in order for Love and Rage to
meaningfully focus itself we would have to choose between
important areas of work. The various proposals were prioritized
on the basis of a straw poll. In the end we were able to have
full and productive discussions of two areas of work, and these
will be our focus areas for the coming year. Each of the two
focus areas is the responsibility of a working group.

One area of work is Anti-Racism and Police Brutality. The
Anti-Racist working group has several projects going: 1)
organizing against a possible Klan march in Chattanooga, TN on
September 11 (see front page, this issue); 2) producing a large
poster with an anti-racist/anti-police brutality theme; 3)
producing some literature, including an info pack (due out
October 1st); and more. You can reach the working group care of
PO Box 44563, Detroit, MI 48244.

The other area of work is opposition to immigration controls and
anti-immigrant violence. The Immigration working group is working
on these projects: 1) Organizing for an international action for
May 9th, 1994 calling for an end to immigration restrictions, an
end to anti-immigrant violence, and the tearing down of borders;
2) Producing a multi-lingual poster to build for that action; 3)
compiling and distributing information about immigration,
anti-immigrant violence, etc.; 4) produce a pamphlet of 8-12
pages about these issues, due out in early September; and more.
You can reach them at the Federation Office, PO Box 3606,
Oakland, CA 94609-0606.

Gathering Clouds

This was an important and productive conference, although it was
also difficult. A number of political questions that had been a
source of tension in the previous year were finally resolved in
San Diego with the result that some people left the organization.

The last Love and Rage Network conference in Atlanta in November
of 1992 had failed to resolve several issues that many in the
Network felt needed to be resolved before the Network could
become an effective political organization. The two main issues
were whether and how to define membership in the Network, and
whether and how to develop a statement of the common politics of
the Network. Between the Atlanta and San Diego conferences
differences on these questions became particularly bitter,
especially in the New York-based Production Group, and pretty
much everybody agreed that the divisions over these issues were
paralyzing the Network and making it ineffective in coordinating
any sort of political activity. The debates over these issues
took place in the Love and Rage internal discussion bulletin, the
Disco Bull. Prior to the San Diego conference, a statement laying
out five points, including the need for a definition of
membership and a statement of common politics, was circulated
among people active in the Network and 22 people signed it. In
response to this and the unbearable personal tensions felt by
everybody, four members of the New York-based Production Group
quit both the Production Group and the Network.

Calm Before the Storm

On Saturday it was decided we would tackle some of the various
and controversial decisions about the structure of the Network
and related political issues. Several important decisions were
made without much difficulty.It was decided that the Discussion
Bulletin will continue to come out of Minneapolis. We made a
strong commitment to finding a new home for the DB within a year.
The DB will now come out quarterly, being mailed on March 1st,
June 1st, September 1st, and December 1st. Deadlines are 1 month
before mailing, so: February 1st, May 1st, August 1st, and
November 1st.

It was also decided to open an office in the Bay Area which would
take over most (hopefully all) Network (as opposed to newspaper)
activities from the office in New York. In the short term, this
will include: collecting pledges and redistributing them to
projects of the Federation; answering mail; and slowly taking up
other Federation projects like: speaking tours, poster projects,
mailings, etc. The Federation Office address is: Love and Rage
Revolutionary Anarchist Federation, PO Box 3606, Oakland, CA
94609-0606. Keep looking for updates about what tasks they are
taking over.

Matt Black will be producing the Federation Bulletin for the
foreseeable future. They will be produced twice monthly, and will
mailed out on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of each month. The
Federation Bulletin will only be mailed to Federation members.
Also, in the future the Federation Bulletin will be moving to the
Bay Area office, maybe by January.

Tommy Lawless made the observation that since many groups focus
their activities on one area or another, we should publicize that
so that people who want to learn about certain things can write
to the people who know about them. People immediately saw the
logic of her ideas and approved this clear-headed proposal.
Anyone interested in serving as a contact for a particular type
of organizing (anti-racist, anarca-feminism, animal liberation,
and so on) should send a note to the New York office so that a
list can be published  in future future editions of the paper,
DB, and FB.

There was much discussion about whether or not to have a paid
staff person in the New York office in the future. It was decided
to have a paid position for at least the next 6 months, at which
time the Federation Council will have to decide whether or not to
continue this arrangement. Todd Prane of New York was elected
Staff Person. He will be paid $300 per month.

Love and Rage Defines Membership

All the tensions came to the surface at the conference in the
discussion of a proposal to define membership for the Network.
Some people were opposed to defining membership at all,
preferring to work in an information- and resource-sharing
network that would not require that type of political definition.
Some people were  opposed to defining membership if the
definition included "dues" or the requirement of sending money to
become a member. Other people supported defining membership as
proposed. It became clear that reaching a consensus would be
impossible. But everyone agreed that it would be better to decide
the issue somehow then, rather than to put it off. After more
discussion, it was suggested by people in "both camps" that
people who opposed the membership proposal stand aside during the
decision-making. After more discussion, a call was made for
consensus, and the proposal to formally define membership was
accepted.

While the formal process of consensus decision-making was used,
it would be false to suggest that there was any real consensus.
The meeting was roughly split in half (two straw polls went in
opposite directions on the question). But since supporters of
membership were now responsible for publishing both the Spanish
and English newspapers, and the internal Discussion Bulletin
(Disco Bull), and had offered to open an office in the Bay Area
and to publish the semi-monthly Network Bulletin, opponents of
the proposal stood aside, and allowed the proposal to pass.

The differences expressed in San Diego have to do with more than
simply the idea of membership. As in the anarchist movement as a
whole, within the Love and Rage Network there have been and are
different conceptions of the best ways to work towards
revolution. The question of membership was tightly wrapped up
with the question of having a statement of common politics.
Supporters of membership felt that an explicit agreement of what
our common politics were was necessary if we were to effectively
make decisions about undertaking common projects as a Network. In
order to democratically develop a statement of those politics, it
was argued, it would be necessary to define who was and was not
part of the Network.

Some people who were opposed to memebership saw the main purpose
of the Network as networking and information-sharing. Since they
were less interested in the idea of coordinated national or
international action, they saw no need for a defined set of
politics or for membership. Others opposed the move because they
thought that it represented an increase in the centralization of
the Network, and they were organizationally opposed to this. One
of the frequently-made comments of this sort was that this move
represented an attempt to organize the anarchist movement from
the top-down.

Some differences can be worked around_people with different ideas
on some things can work together on others _but some differences
are imposible to contain within one group.

It's difficult to deal with a significant political difference
within an organization. There is almost no history for it in the
current anarchist movement. Quite the opposite, usually serious
differences are either ignored or become the basis of insults
rather than criticisms. While the process in San Diego left much
to be desired, the meeting did not degenerate in this way, to the
credit of everyone involved.

The conference approved the following  definition of membership:
Members 1) Generally agree with the stated politics of the
Federation (based on the existing, "suspended" Political
Statement; and 2) Identify themselves as members; and 3) send in
$25 per year to cover the costs of subscriptions to Love and
Rage, the Disco Bull, the Network Bull, and other mailings. The
$25 fee may be waived on request to the Federation Office.
Members of Supporting Groups are automatically members if they
want to be, and don't need to send in an additional $25. But,
members of Supporting Groups have to identify themselves
individually as members to be counted as members. Only people who
write to the Federation Office (PO Box 3606, Oakland, CA
94609-0606) and identify themselves as members are members. Of
course, only members are eligible to participate in future
decision-making, though everyone, as always, is welcome and
strongly encouraged to participate in the discussion.

After the gruelling discussion of membership we broke for the
day, many of us heading immediately to the beach.

The Federation is Born

On Sunday morning the final business session of the conference
was held. In contrast to the previous day, decisions were made
quickly and without much rancor. First the name of the
organization was changed from the Love and Rage Network to the
Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation, in part out of
respect to people opposed to defining membership, who argued that
a "network" was a less-structured, non-membership grouping, and
thus an inappropriate name for the new structure Love and Rage.

The decision-making structure of the Federation has been a source
of discontent for a long time, and it was changed significantly
in San Diego. It was decided to junk the Coordinating Group in
favor of putting effort into making the Federation Council
(formerly the Network Council) work once and for all. At the same
time, due to the fact that a lot of people in the Federation
weren't present, it was decided to adopt an interim structure for
the FC until the FC meets in January 1994, where a better
structure can be hammered out. The Federation Council is
(temporarily) composed of:

Up to two delegates from each Supporting Group;
Two delegates from the New York Production Group;
Two delegates from Me'xico Production Group;
One delegate from the Disco Bull;
One delegate from the Federation Office;
One delegate from the Anti-Racist working group;
One delegate from the Anti-Immigrant working group;

The Federation Council meeting will be over Martin Luther King,
Jr. weekend in January 1994, location to be announced.

The financial situation (always grim) was discussed and several
points were emphasized.  1) Please pledge if you possibly can. As
always, our expenses are greater than our income, recently by
about $400 each month; 2) We will send out letters to people who
don't pay for the papers we send, letting them know that we are
going to stop sending papers if we don't hear from them; 3) We
initiated a $10,000  fund-drive to raise money to send a computer
system to Amor y Rabia Mexico, and to upgrade the computer in the
NY office. $2,000  has already been committed and we hope to
raise the rest within the next six months.

It was decided that any immediate action on the Political
Statement should be put off until the Federation Council meeting
in January. There just weren't enough people in San Diego to move
forward on this. The conference in San Diego decided that we
would attempt to have a final document by the next conference
(presumably next summer). It was decided to continue the
discussion of the content of the new Political Statement in the
Disco Bull until the Federation Council meeting, at which point a
formal process for developing the document would be decided on.

A lot of things were not decided, and many of these decisions are
temporary until membership is clearer and the Federation can meet
to make more permanent decisions.

The conference was difficult_it isn't easy deciding that you have
serious political differences with people you know, like, and
respect. All of those things stay the same.

Even in light of all that, I am very pleased personally with the
outcome of San Diego. I feel that now that we can identify the
membership, we can come to lasting agreements about what we have
in common and how to best work together. This seems to me to be
the first step towards moving away from too much talk about
internal issues and moving towards more organizing.

GOVERNMENTS DON'T FALL BY THEMSELVES.
THEY NEED YOUR HELP.

JOIN THE FEDERATION

___ I am in general agreement with the stated politics of the Love
and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation and support the
projects of the Federation. I would like to become a member.
Enclosed is my $25 annual communications fee (The fee may be
waived on written request). I understand that I will recieve the
newspaer, the Federation Bulletin (twice a month) and the internal
Discussion Bulletin (4 times a year)

___ I would like further informatio about the politics of the
Federation. I have enclosed $5 for the Love and Rage Political
Statement Working Papers.

Address:
City:
State/Province:
Zip/Postal Code:
Phone Number:

Send check or money order to:
Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation
P.O. Box 3606
Oakland, CA 94609-0606
                                *


Anarchist Black Cross (ABC):

UPDATE ON OHIO PRISON REVOLT

We reported on the uprising at the Southern Ohio Correctional
Facility (SOCF), located in Lucasville, Ohio, in our last issue.
Since then considerably more material has come out of the prison.
The May/June issue of Prison News Service contains extensive
accounts from seven different prisoners dispelling many of the
lies put out through the capitalist press.  It would be impossible
to summarize all of these accounts, so we strongly urge readers
who do not already receive Prison News Service to obtain this
issue. One item that we did not have access to at press time for
the last issue of Love and Rage was the demands of the Lucasville
prisoners. The demands of the uprising were:

1. Follow all administrative rules and regulations.

2. Administrative discipline and criminal proceedings will be
fairly and impartially administered without bias against any
specific individuals or groups.

3. All injured parties will receive prompt medical care and
follow-up.

4. The surrender will be witnessed by religious leaders and news
media.

5. Unit Management system will be reviewed with attempts to improve
in areas requiring change.

6. SOCF will contact the Federal Court to review the White v.
Morris consent decree that requires  integrated celling.

7. All close security prisoners have already been transferred from
K side and L side. Close security inmates will be immediately
evaluated for transfer.

8. Procedures will be implemented to thoroughly review prisoners
files pertaining to early release matters and changes will be made
where warranted.

9. Six-hundred inmates transferred to relieve overcrowding.

10. Current policies regarding inappropriate supervision will be
rigidly enforced.

11. Medical staffing levels will be reviewed to ensure compliance
with ACA standards for medical care.

12. Attempts will be made to expedite and improve work and program
opportunities.

13. The DRC will work to evaluate and improve work and programmatic
opportunities.

14. There will be no retaliatory actions taken against any prisoner
or group of prisoners or their property.

15. A complete review of all correctional facility mail and visit
policies will be undertaken.

16. Transfers from the correctional facility are coordinated
through the Bureau of Classification. Efforts will be increased to
ensure prompt transfers of those prisoners who meet eligibility
requirements.

17. Efforts will be undertaken to upgrade channels of communication
between employees and prisoners involving quality of life issues.

18. The complete commissary pricing system will be reviewed.

19. The DRC will consult the Department of Health regarding any
future TB testing.

20. The FBI will monitor processing and ensure that civil rights
will be upheld.

21. The DRC will consider case by case the interstate transfer of
any prisoner if the DRC feels that there is a reasonable basis to
believe that they would be unable to provide a secure environment
for that prisoner. Any prisoner denied transfer will be reviewed by
the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

                                *

LARRY  GIDDINGS TRANSFERRED

Larry Giddings, an anti-authoritarian arrested October 14, 1979
for his involvement in an attempt to liberate another freedom
fighter from a Seattle jail, has been transferred from
Leavenworth, Kansas to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Lewisburg is
another maximum security institution, where Puerto Rican POWs
Edwin Cortes, Ricardo Jimenez, and Alberto Rodriguez are also
imprisoned. Larry's new address is:

Larry Giddings
No. 10917-086
P.O. Box 1000
Lewisburg, PA 17837
                                *

DEVELOPMENTS IN BILL DUNNE'S CASE

Bill Dunne, a pow arrested in 1979 with Larry Giddings after the
failed rescue attempt of a comrade in prison, is currently
appealing a suit he has filed against the prison system for
cheating on his prison sentences. Bill, who is facing 90 years
for the '79 action (state and federal charges) and another 15
for his escape in 1983 (federal charges), is fighting for
freedom on the grounds that by applicable law, jurisdiction over
him has been surrendered and his sentence legally completed.
This stems from a change in his status as a state prisoner to a
federal prisoner in '82, then back to a state prisoner in '85,
then back to a federal prisoner in '91.  According to legal
precedent, these actions both violated his right to serve a
continual sentence (in other words not being forced to switch
between two sentences). By surrendering him back to the state
prisoner status in '85, the federal authorities gave up
jurisdiction over him, satisfying the federal conviction, and
giving him an implied pardon. As it stands however, the
authorities are trying to add an effective six years of prison
time onto his sentence, claiming a clerical error. We will be
following his appeal in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. If
Dunne wins, this would also make it likely that Larry Giddings
could present a similar case for his release.

Bill Dunne
No.10916-086
P.O. Box 33
Terre Haute, IN 47808

                                *

SUPPORT THE TRENTON 7

On Wednesday, June 23, the New Jersey Defense Committee held a
demonstration in support of the Trenton 7, seven Black prisoners
charged in the 1990 ambush of guards at New Jersey's notorious
Trenton State Prison. They were charged with 18-count indictments
of attempted murder, aggravated assault, and weapons possession.
The charges were piled up, but ultimately the Trenton 7 were
convicted on only a handful of the counts.

On Friday, July 30, even though they had been acquitted on the most
serious charges, the five who were convicted on any charges were
sentenced to between 10 and 30 more years in prison. The five are
appealing these outrageous sentences.

Murray (He Justice Allah) Whitfield, 27, of Long Branch, was found
guilty of assaulting Capt. James Johnston and possession of a
weapon, but was acquitted of 16 other counts, including three
counts of attempted murder. He was sentenced to 20 more years in
prison.

Eugene (Hassan) Jones, 33, of Englewood, was found not guilty of
all 18 counts.

Eugene (Kisu Balagoon) Belton, 35, of Paterson, was convicted on
four counts of assaulting guards and one weapon-possession count,
but acquitted on the remaining 13 attempted murder and assault
charges. Balagoon was sentenced to 21 1/2 more years in prison.

Ogbanna Khalfani, 32, of Newark, was convicted on one count of
aggravated assault, but acquitted on the other 17 counts. He was
sentenced to an additional 10 years in prison.

Keith (Ajani) Bowman, 28, of Newark, was acquitted on all 17
counts.

Massai Khaban, 49, of Camden, was convicted of aggravated assault
and acquitted on 17 related counts. He was sentenced to an
additional 10 years in prison.

Gerald Nance, 38, of Passaic, was convicted on two counts of
aggravated assault, one count of assault, and one weapon possession
charge. He was acquitted of the 14 remaining counts, including all
three for attempted murder. He was sentenced to an additional 30
years in prison.

While the acquittal on all the attempted murder charges was a
victory for the Trenton 7, the heavy sentences reflect the
determination of the state to terrorize prisoners who stand up to
the inhuman treatment they recieve.

The demonstration by the New Jersey Defense Committee was part of
an effort to maintain a visible presence during the 10 week trial
of the Trenton 7. The New Jersey Defense Committtee is a coalition
made up of the Black Cat Collective, the Paterson Anarchist
Collective, Nightcrawler Anarchist Black Cross, and the Black
Panther Newspaper Committee.
                                *

RIK SCARCE, GRAND JURY RESISTER, NEEDS SUPPORT

Last month we reported that Rik Scarce, the author of
"Eco-Warriors" had been jailed for refusing to answer questions in
front of a Grand Jury about interviews he did with environmental
and Animal Liberation Front activists for his book. He deserves
your support for his courageous stand.

Write him at:

James R. Scarce
Spokane County Jail
W. 1100 Mallon
Spokane, WA 99260
                                *

     ANARCHIST BLACK CROSS AND OTHER PRISONER SUPPORT GROUPS

ABC Baltimore
P.O. Box 19245
Baltimore, MD 21213

ABC Chicago
c/o WCF P.O. Box 81961
Chicago, IL 60681

Nightcrawler ABC
PO Box 20181 Tompkins Sq. Station
NY, NY 10009

ABC Minneapolis
P.O. Box 581354
Minneapolis, MN 55458-1354

New Jersey ABC
P.O. Box 8532
Haledon, NJ 0708-8532

ABC Portland
c/o Rosebud Commons
1951 W. Burnside Box 1928
Portland, OR 97209

ABC Wisconsin
P.O. Box 173
Madison, WI 53701-0173

Prison News Service
P.O. Box 5052, Stn. A
Toronto, ONT M5W 1W4

                                *

Hit'em While They're Down: An Anarchist Critique of Marxism

THE CRISIS OF COMMUNISM AND
THE OPPORTUNITY FOR ANARCHISM
By Ron Taber

As anyone who follows the news knows, world communism is in
crisis. The Communist regimes in Eastern Europe have been
overthrown by popular movements and replaced by governments at
least formally committed to creating traditional capitalism. The
regime in what used to be the Soviet Union has been toppled and
the Soviet Union itself has fragmented into national republics,
whose current governments are also dedicated, at least in words,
to creating traditional capitalist economies. The Sandinista
government in Nicaragua and the Mengistu juggernaut in Ethiopia
are gone, and it seems likely that Castro's government will not
long survive in its present form. Even the Communist regimes that
appear stable, such as those in China, North Korea and North [sic]
Vietnam, are only viable to the degree that they loosen up central
economic planning, open their economies to foreign trade and
investment and allow "free market" forces to operate.

These events have created a profound crisis of Communist ideology,
"Marxism-Leninism." Not surprisingly, the greatest demonstration
of the viability of communism as an ideology was the very
existence of Communist regimes: "Nothing succeeds like success"
applies as much to communism as capitalism. One didn't need to
know much about Marx and Lenin to know that communism was a potent
threat to the "Free World." This was especially telling to a
worldview that touted itself as materialist. With the collapse of
the Soviet Union and the Communist systems in Eastern Europe and
elsewhere, Communist ideology no longer seems to have the validity
it once did.

Beyond this, the very way these societies collapsed has battered
Communist ideology. Whatever else became clear during the past few
years, it was obvious to even the willfully duped that most of the
people who lived in Communist societies hated them. The mass
movements that removed Communist governments were clearly not tiny
minorities sponsored by the CIA. (So much for these governments
being "dictatorships of the proletariat," "workers' states,"
"people's democracies," or "democracies of a new type.") It was
also edifying to hear official sources confirm the atrocities
committed by these regimes against their own peoples and to
actually see the results of some of them on TV. Not long after the
overthrow of the Ceausescu dictatorship in Rumania in December
1989, one longtime supporter of the "socialist countries"
(including Rumania), denounced Ceausescu as a "fascist."

Of course, the more astute (and/or more cynical) supporters of the
Soviet camp knew in their hearts that these societies were not
really democratic, even that the people living in them didn't like
them very much. But this was explained away as a relatively minor
debit that was more than outweighed by the fact that these regimes
promoted economic growth, guaranteed full employment and free
medical care, and sponsored admirable cultural institutions and
winning Olympic teams. But as former Soviet premier Mikhail
Gorbachev admitted, nationalized property and central planning had
not led to sustained economic growth, but to stagnation, vast
environmental destruction and catastrophic crisis. It no longer
mattered whether unemployment had been eliminated (it hadn't), or
that medical care was free (although there wasn't enough alcohol
to sterilize needles or power to run the equipment): these
achievements were not sustainable. Whereas Nikita Khrushchev had
declared, "We will bury you," the Soviet economy had buried itself
under the weight of its bureaucracy, inefficiencies and
injustices.

All of this has meant that Communist ideology, and Marxism more
broadly, no longer looks as valid as it used to. Although one can
argue that Communist ideology should not be equated with Marxism,
i.e., that Marxism-Leninism is a parody of true Marxism, that the
Communist regimes were not what Karl Marx had in mind, etc., in
fact, the two have become closely identified. (This is in part
because the Marxist left so adamantly embraced the Communist
societies and denied, downplayed or justified the atrocities
committed there.) As a result, Marxism itself is in a crisis, and
it's no accident that the socialist and Communist left, in the US
and around the world, is in retreat.

THE PERIOD OF MARXIST DOMINANCE ON THE LEFT

The current crisis of communism/Marxism offers a significant
opportunity for anarchism/anti-authoritarianism. Anarchism has
been eclipsed by Marxism in its various guises for over 70 years.
Except for Spain, where a mass anarchist movement existed into the
1930s, and a couple of other countries, the dominant forces of the
left have been, since the Russian Revolution of 1917, Marxist or
Marxist-derived.

It was not always this way. At the birth of the modern working
class movement and socialist thought, various forms of
anarchism/anti-authoritarianism vied with Marxism for influence.
One of Marx's earliest works, The Poverty of Philosophy, is a
polemic against Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, an early exponent of
anti-authoritarian thought whose influence was, for many years,
far greater than Marx's. It's also worth recalling that Marx and
Engels arranged the transfer of the headquarters of the
International Workingmen's Association (the First International),
to New York (and the organization's collapse), rather than allow
it to fall into the hands of the followers of Mikhail Bakunin. And
anti-authoritarian ideas had more influence among members of the
Paris Commune than did those of Marx and Engels. In the United
States, anarchist (or "anarcho") militants and tendencies were as
influential in the working class movements around the turn of the
century as were Marxist and socialist ones, and they were far more
radical.

It was not until the Russian revolution, the establishment of the
Communist International and the two decades following these events
that Marxism, socialism and Communism became the dominant
influence in the working class movement and the left generally, in
the US and around the world.

To a degree, the dominance of Communism/Marxism stemmed from
anarchism's own weaknesses, from the statist tendencies within
capitalism, and from the active repression of libertarian
movements by Communist regimes and their agents. Communist
hegemony was primarily a result of the fact that the very
existence of Communist regimes made Marxism look real viable and
powerful, a significant historical force in contrast to the
marginal role of anarchism.

MARXISM, THE NEW LEFT, AND BLACK LIBERATION

A look at the 1960s, the period of the most recent mass
radicalization in the United States, is instructive in this
regard. Then, anarchism had an opportunity to develop a
significant base in the radical movement, but failed to do so. At
that time, the political field was relatively open. Significant
sections of young people were becoming disillusioned with the
Democratic Party, the Communist Party was small and discredited,
and other socialist organizations were tiny and without influence.

Moreover, there was a definite potential for anarchist ideas to
take hold among young radicals. Although the New Left (in
particular, Students for a Democratic Society), was launched by
people from social-democratic backgrounds, its ideas and penchants
had a great deal in common with anarchism, particularly once the
radicalization gained momentum. The movement stressed direct
decision making, local control and opposition to centralized
hierarchical structures and political discipline (the "party
line"). It supported direct action as opposed to traditional
("electoral") politics. It believed in opposing liberalism and
liberal politicians, as opposed to seeing them as its allies. It
was hostile to the labor bureaucracy and its allies and didn't
think much of the radical potential of the unions altogether. It
identified capitalism and imperialism, rather than seeing the
latter as a particular foreign policy. It opposed communism not
merely for being oppressive and dictatorial but because it was
insufficiently radical. The New Left advocated cultural freedom
and was committed to declaring its beliefs openly and
aggressively, rather than trimming them to conform to contemporary
(pro-capitalist) discourse, that is, softening them to increase
their acceptability. It was non-ideological (but not
anti-theoretical; it was developing its own theory) and certainly
not totalitarian, at least not at its inception.

However, by the end of the '60s, the most radical elements of the
New Left organizations, tendencies and people were ardent
supporters of Communist regimes (Cuba, China, Vietnam and the
Soviet Union, in roughly that order), and self proclaimed
adherents of some form of Marxism. A major factor in this
transition was the existence of the Communist regimes, the fact
that they were targets/victims of the imperialist aggression of
the United States and were waging a heroic resistance to it. As
the anti-war struggle progressed and the US ruling class showed no
signs of withdrawing from Vietnam, the most radical students and
other middle-class people who made up the bulk of the white
radical movement became painfully aware of their relative social
isolation and the limitations of their power. It was only natural
that they would identify with the Communist-led liberation
movements and the "socialist countries" that sponsored them, and
seek to emulate them.

A comparable process was at work within the Black liberation
movement, where the most radical forces, frustrated by the
meagerness of the gains of the civil rights movement and the
collaborationist policies of the leadership, soon embraced forms
of "revolutionary nationalism" and Marxism, and declared their
solidarity with Cuba, Vietnam and China (and by extension the
Soviet Union). Eventually, the vast majority of the
revolutionary-minded people (Black, Brown, and white), in the
movement, even those who remained outraged liberals at heart,
considered themselves Marxists/Communists.

(There were certainly other factors behind this development,
such as the lack of a sizable and serious anarchist
alternative, but these were far less significant than the
existence and role of the Communist societies.)

A PYRRHIC VICTORY FOR CAPITALISM

It is for this reason that the current crisis of Communism/Marxism
offers what I believe to be a historic opportunity for
anarchism the chance to reemerge as a significant force,
theoretically and practically, on the left in the US and
internationally. As the current recession in the US suggests, the
victory of capitalism over Communism will turn out to be a phyrric
one, temporary and ultimately hollow. The World economy is
entering into a crisis which will last quite a while and may well
be very deep. Mass movements against its effects are already
developing and with them will come a resurgence of the left. With
Communism greatly weakened, the political field will be far more
open than it's been in decades. In this situation, anarchist ideas
and organizations will grow and hopefully be able to vie for
influence in and leadership of the international radical upsurge
that is now beginning to develop. Unfortunately, the crisis of
Communism isn't permanent. Marxism is not dead, and as political
turmoil and mass struggles increase, it will experience a revival
of its fortunes, most likely in a new guise. In fact, this is
already beginning to happen. In Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet Union, the economic crisis and political uncertainty that
have followed the collapse of the Communist regimes have already
eroded the popular support of the new governments. As economic
conditions deteriorate, the promises of capitalism will come to
look more like lies, and the old regimes, which at least
maintained order, will start to look better than they did before
their overthrow.Moreover, the proponents of those societies, the
old ruling classes and parties, have not left the scene. In some
countries, they've shed their old labels, admitted a few
"mistakes," formed "new" organizations with "new" programs that
affirm their commitment to democracy and human rights, and become
the parliamentary opposition. In others, such as Rumania and
Bulgaria, the old ruling classes, slightly reorganized and
disguised, still have great power and are going along with or
pretending to implement pluralist capitalist programs. In each
case, they are waiting for a large enough political base to emerge
to enable them, via coups or elections, to regain as much power as
circumstances allow.

In Russia and the other countries of the former Soviet Union, the
Communists are forming alliances with right-wing
nationalist/authoritarian forces, hoping to undermine the
governments and build a mass base for a return to authoritarian
rule, the exact nature of which will depend on the balance of
forces within these uneasy coalitions. In fact, now that the old
Communist parties/elites no longer openly rule, the Communists
will be able to turn their losses into advantages, shifting
responsibility for economic and social conditions onto their
successors and blaming them on capitalism. In short, as conditions
in these countries deteriorate, the Communist program and forces
will start to look a lot more viable than they do now.

A comparable process is at work on a global scale. The crisis of
Communism is merely one facet and an early sign of a deepening
crisis of world capitalism. Just a couple of years ago, it looked
like the United States was the king of the heap, global hegemon:
the Cold War was over, the Communist Menace crushed; George Bush
talked about a New World Order. But now it's obvious the US
economy is in dire shape: the current recession is no ordinary
"downturn" and an increasing number of capitalist economists are
admitting that the country is suffering from a profound structural
crisis, whose roots date back to 1970 if not to the immediate
post-World War II period. And nobody knows what to do about it.
Europe and Japan have also been hit by recessions and the entire
global economy seems poised to enter a slowdown, if not something
worse. In this context it is not just the new governments in
Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union that will look so bad;
so will the United States and the entire capitalist system.

A MARXIST REVIVAL

With renewed capitalist crisis, Marxism will revive, showing
itself to be quite resilient. (I am not predicting the return to
power of the old Communist regimes, but the re-emergence of
Marxist organizations and ideology as significant features on the
global political landscape.) It doesn't matter that it's been
proven that Marxism doesn't work, that it doesn't lead to
classless and stateless societies, but brutal regimes and
unspeakable crimes. Already, former Communist parties are
reorganizing, admitting to past "mistakes" and adopting more
democratic-sounding ("democratic socialist"), programs and names.
After a period of crisis and decline, they will start to grow.

Beyond its moral elusiveness, Marxism has many features that make
it extremely attractive to people angry at the injustices of
capitalism and anxious to make the world a better place. It offers
a systematic analysis of capitalism that has never been
approached, let alone equaled, in its cogency, breadth and depth.
It offers a moral indictment of the system, a vision of a just
society and a strategy and set of tactics to get there. It offers
a conception of history and human nature, and apparent answers to
all the fundamental questions that have consumed the minds of
humans probably since the beginnings of humanity itself.

It doesn't matter that very little of what Marxism offers is the
real thing, that its answers aren't answers (or that some of these
questions don't even have answers). Among other things, it is its
claim to solve all these problems, to answer all the questions, to
tie everything in a nice neat bundle, that makes Marxism so
attractive, and so dangerous.

As a result the current "window of opportunity" available to
anarchism is limited. I believe that in the new radicalization
that is now beginning, Marxism and the Marxist left will re-emerge
as significant forces, both in the realm of radical theory and in
concrete political influence. If anarchism is to become a
significant factor in the new movement, it will have to keep this
in mind and take steps to deal with it.

A TOTALITARIAN DOCTRINE

There is considerable irony in the fact that I should be warning
the anarchist movement to watch out for a renaissance of Marxism.
For 25 years I considered myself a Marxist, and once the upsurge
of the 1960s was over, looked for a new radicalization to create a
workers' movement led by a Marxist organization and based on a
Marxist program. Along with co-thinkers, primarily in the
Revolutionary Socialist League, I helped elaborate a variety of
Marxism that attempted to remain loyal to the classless stateless
Marxian ideal, while rejecting, as un-Marxist as well as immoral,
the Communist regimes and the ideologies they promoted. To us,
these regimes were the opposite of Communism (in fact, forms of
state capitalism), which it was the duty of true Marxists to
expose and oppose. Believing that US and world capitalism were
heading for a profound economic crisis, based on stagnating
productive investment and an explosion of debt, we predicted a
revival of the working class and radical movements and hoped to
build a revolutionary Marxist party to fight for what we
considered to be the true Marxist program.

During this process, however, I came to recognize that Marxism is
totalitarian. Although there may be Marxists who are committed to
creating free societies, the overwhelming majority are not. Even
if they were, the logic of Marxism virtually guarantees that when
Marxists come to power the societies they establish will be
totalitarian. It is no accident that 95% (99%) of all Marxists
supported the Communist regimes, and denied, explained away or
justified the crimes committed by them. I believe that 95% (99%)
of the Marxists in the future will think the same way. Marxism, in
my view, is a totalitarian doctrine, and every attempt to
implement the Marxian program will lead to the establishment of
totalitarian societies.

BEYOND SIMPLE DENUNCIATIONS

If anarchism is to be able to vie with Marxism in the future, it
needs a systematic critique of Marxism. It needs to be able to
explain why Marxism is totalitarian, and why a new, cleansed
Marxism will have no better results than the previous version.
Anarchists have produced critiques of Marxism, but those I am
familiar with do not get to the root of the matter. Too often,
they limit themselves to describing or denouncing the actions of
Marxists/Communists without explaining why they behave the way
they do, beyond merely asserting that Marxists are authoritarian,
believe in the state, etc. Or, they focus on certain aspects of
Marxism, such as Marx's belief in the central role and
revolutionary potential of the working class, as the chief source
of Marxism's authoritarianism. Today, some anarchists seem to
think it enough simply to denounce Marxism as authoritarian, while
others, surprisingly, are sympathetic to it, believing that
Marxism has a lot to offer to anarchists; Bolshevism,
Marxism-Leninism, is the bad stuff.

I believe more is needed, and I propose to begin addressing the
question in a series of articles, which I hope will be published
in Love and Rage. I don't contend my critique will be complete.
That's impossible; Marxism entails a lot more material than can be
encompassed in a series of articles in a newspaper, or even a
book. Moreover, an effective critique must be an ongoing process.
What I will attempt here is to discuss certain aspects of Marxism
and show why the logic of its ideas points to the establishment of
totalitarian societies, why Marxists, once in power, will almost
inevitably implement programs that sabotage their own claims (and
intentions) to create democratic, classless and stateless
societies.

My treatment will inevitably omit some questions, even crucial
ones. I also expect I'll be guilty of simplifying and, to a
degree, distorting Marxist ideas, and that my own analysis will be
open to criticism. Undoubtedly, supporters of Marxism will find
many holes which they'll contend, weaken if not destroy my
argument. However, if my presentation serves to educate
anti-authoritarians in the major ideas of Marxism, and at least to
suggest the reasons why Marxism has led to the establishment of
totalitarian societies rather than the classless and stateless
communism predicted, that will be enough.

                                *

"A Look at Leninism"
by Ron Taber

Taber's critique of Leninism is a valuable weapon in the hand of
all revolutionary anti-authoritarians. Written as a series of
articles, "A Look at Leninism" introduces the reader to the key
concepts of Leninism and then demolishes the claims of Leninism as
an ideology of liberation.

"A Look at Leninism" was the declaration of Taber's complete break
with Leninism, and set the stage for his current series of
articles critiquing Marxism. -- Anti-Authoritarian International News

"A Look at Leninism" is available for $3.50 from:
Love and Rage
P.O. Box 853
Stuyvesant Station
New York, NY 10012

                                *


LETTERS TO LOVE AND RAGE


Dear Love and Rage,

First, congratulations on the recent improvements in Love and
Rage. It is finally really starting to read like a newspaper.
While I wholeheartedly encourage the expanded international
coverage, I also offer a word of caution. The stories on the RAF
and PKK in your recent issue (both apparently lifted from
Ontario's Arm the Spirit) were interesting, but point to the
danger of falling into the same trap which Vancouver's Open Road
succumbed to before its demise -- that is equating anarchism with
mere violent left-wing extremism, even of the authoritarian
variety.

The story on the PKK and the struggles in Kurdistan has a dogmatic
and oversimplified analysis which sees the PKK rebels in eastern
Turkey as the vanguard of the Kurdish struggle while the Kurdish
rebels in northern Iraq are seen as mere pawns of imperialism.
Barzani's peshmerga in Iraq's Mosul province has indeed played
ball with the CIA and the governments of Turkey and Iran. The PKK,
for its own part, has Maoist leanings and has played ball with the
despotic Assad regime in Syria. Both groups (and the populations
in their zones of control) are facing levels of state terror that
border on the genocidal and have therefore been forced to seek
support where they can find it. This isn't to let Barzani off the
hook for his opportunism. But a more sophisticated analysis would
explore how the Kurdish people have been divided by the drawing of
state boundaries through the heart of their ancestral territory,
and would condemn the complicity of both Turkey and Iraq in
manipulating the conflict into a Kurdish civil war.

Despite your "Boring Disclaimer," you might consider using more
varied sources for international coverage, and developing a
perspective which is more rooted in anti-authoritarian principles.
Now that you're finally beginning to read like a newspaper, I'd
hate to see you lose the "anarchist" element of your professed
subtitle.

Yours,
Bill Weinberg
Neither East Nor West
New York City

                                *

ANTI-ZIONISM JUST AIN'T ANTI-SEMITISM


Dear Anarchist Comrades,

The long letter "Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism" (L&R, Apr./May
`93), in which an anonymous "bisexual friend" attacked Raven's
Banner Collective's expose of Zionism as "anti-Semitic" and called
for a "genuinely anti-authoritarian critique of Zionism," itself
ingeniously asserted the central myths of Zionist propaganda:
"Jews are a race, Zionism is merely another national movement and
not inherently racist, Jews had `nowhere else to go' after WW II
but to `Israel,' the Holocaust morally justifies the Zionist
program, negative descriptions of Zionism are really
anti-Semitic." How curious.

Anti-authoritarians would do well to thoroughly research the
phenomenon of Zionism for themselves, rather than buy our dubious
"bisexual friend's" apologetics and distortions, all of which
smell like they came from the disinformation department of the
ADL. As basic resource material we recommend Alfred Lilienthal,
The Zionist Connection; Noam Chomsky, The Fateful Triangle; Andrew
and Leslie Cockburn, Dangerous Liason; Ralph Schoenman, The Hidden
History of Zionism; Paul Findley, They Dare to Speak Out; Simha
Flapan, The Birth of Israel; and Victor Ostrovsky, By Way of
Deception. We also encourage everybody to read the informative
articles of Benjamin Merhav, an expatriate Israeli and friend of
our Collective (and who, incidentally, enthusiastically endorsed
our letter on Zionism). Write Mr. Merhav c/o Malvern P.O.,
Malvern, Vic. 3144, Australia.

We hope all concerned will get the facts and then decide on the
merits of RBC's anti-Zionist statement. In the meantime, some of
our "bisexual friend's" more outrageous remarks deserve a reply.
Stating that Zionism is not inherently racist belies the
well-documented racist attitudes to the Zionist founders; indeed,
what is the very essence of Zionism -- the notion that Jews must
have their own "racial" state because they cannot live amongst
non-Jews -- if not racist?  Equating Zionism with Irish, New Afrikan
and Puerto Rican nationalism and with genuine national liberation
movements is an insult to anti-imperialist fighters everywhere,
considering that Zionism has been the creature of imperialism from
Day One, and that the Zionist state has eagerly collaborated with
U.S. imperialism and local reactionary regimes in trying to stamp
out uprisings all over the "Third World." Zionist assistance to
the U.S. war machine's genocidal onslaughts across the globe far
outweigh the relatively puny aid provided by a gaggle of American
right-wing fanatics. And as obnoxious and dangerous as the racist
right may be, Zionism is mightier by far, because it has access to
State power and to the domination of Capital internationally.

Finally, we never described Zionism as an "omnipotent force," but
in fact said it was "one of many ... forces on the rampage on
the world today and must not be obsessively dwelt upon to the
exclusion of other dangers"--why did our "bisexual friend" find it
necessary to dishonestly caricature our position?

Our "bisexual friend" asks who and what we are. RBC is an
autonomous, non-sectarian, multi-tendency group that functions
primarily as an anarchist information source, with occasional
forays into public "agit/prop." Contrary to the impression which
may have been created by the hostile letter in question, we take
the threat from the right seriously, and have actually confronted
the anti-Semitic, racist filth of the KKK/skinheads in the
streets; we will continue to do so. As for P.A. Ward, he is an
anarchist whose primary radical influences have been Herbert
Marcuse and Gustav Landauer--both Jews; and who at least signs his
name to his letters.

On behalf of the Collective,
Yours in struggle against Zionism and anti-Semitism

P.A. Ward
Raven's Banner Collective
P.O. Box 2711
Pinellas Park, FL 34664-2711

                                *

STILL KICKIN'?

Dear Love and Rage,

It's one of your friends from Hamilton, the only one from this
city that was involved with Love and Rage still living here. I
haven't had direct contact with Love and Rage for awhile, and had
heard through the grapevine that the project was dead. I am
pleased that the grapevine was wrong! I have heard credibly that
the paper and network was reworked and is not the Love and Rage
Anarchist Federation. I am encouraged by the changes, granting
that they are true.I send postage, I hope sufficient for a reply
from the project detailing changes. From the above credible
source I've heard of a membership fee, that I can't presently
afford. Any reply would be appreciated to put to rest rumors, and
would foster encouragement not discouragement that presently
exists. I was a little "s" supporter in the past, and would like
to be a Big "S" supporter in the future. I am particularly
interested in the anti- racist and immigration working groups I've
heard of, any info on these would be helpful!

Some involved will remember my involvement in the anti-racist
summer project attempt in `92. Even though it has been over a
year, I want to write on the project. I feel now that there could
be practical application for such a paper. Is there a use within
L&R's present structure for this?Lastly I would suggest that you
contact ANAMADVERSE, I understand they don't know the current
status of the project, and they are part of the anarchist movement
that sees its role as reflection and growth. I hope you consider
clearing up local misunderstandings, I'm glad you're still kickin'
it in `93!

A to the K!
Bilbo
Hamilton, Ontario

                                *

Obituary:

CHRIS DELVECCHIO 1969-1993
By Robert V. Gilheany

In early August, we lost a beautiful, wonderful person.
Chris Delvecchio was a passionate, tireless activist who
was electrocuted on the third rail of the Grand Street subway
station on the L line in New York City. He was on his way to
a friend's apartment coming from an ACT UP meeting.

Chris was active on the Stonybrook campus of the State
University of New York where he attended classes. He was a
member of the Red Balloon Collective, and he took a
leadership role in organizing against the Iraq war. Chris
ran clothing drives for squatters, organized busses to mass
demonstrations in D.C. including the Housing Now march and
anti-war demos. Chris was a vegan and an animal liberation
activist. He also wrote to political prisoners in the US
including Helen Woodson and Larry Giddings. Chris moved to
California and was involved in the People's Park struggle,
Food Not Bombs and the formation of the new Infoshop in the
Bay Area. He met Charlene Paul there and the two were
married in February.

It is at least possible that Chris's death was part of a
Queer bashing as he was wearing an ACT UP pin and was not
known to back down from conflict. The police are trying to
rule his death accidental, but his friends have hired a
private investigator and are offering a reward for
information leading to a conviction.

For more information about Chris's death or about the
investigation contact:

Red Balloon Collective
2652 Cropsey Ave. #7H
Brooklyn, NY 11214
                                *


Ahora disponible al pu'blico internacional!

La Edicion Mexicana de...

AMOR Y RABIA:  Un Perio'dico Anarchista Revolucionaria

En este nu'mero de Love and Rage no encontrara's una seccio'n en
espan~ol. Por la primera vez en la historia de Amor y Rabia,
estamos publicando un nu'mero completamente en espan~ol, Amor y
Rabia. en Me'xico, D.F. y se lo ofrecemos para subscripciones y
distribucio'n nacional e internacional. No publicaremos ma's el
perio'dico bilingue en Nueva York.

Amor y Rabia se comenzo' a editar en Me'xico en diciembre del an~o
pasado por parte de l@s compan~er@s de la Red (ahora Federacio'n)
Amor y Rabia en el D.F. Desde entonces han publicado seis
nu'meros incluyendo tres con contenido coordinado con el
perio'dico de Nueva York y tres auto'nomos con contenido
principalmente para Latinoamerica y, sobre todo, Me'xico.

Coordinar el contenido no so'lo quiere decir traducir del ingle's
al espan~ol (como soli'a pasar con la seccio'n en espan~ol en
Nueva York) sino tambie'n traducir de espan~ol a ingle's. O sea,
empezar a publicar ma's arti'culos mexicanos en el perio'dico
norteamericano. Hemos empezado el proceso con este nu'mero (vea
la pa'g. 1, "Primero de Mayo") y esperamos poder ofrecer ma's
informacio'n y reportage latinoamericano a los lectores
norteamericanos y otros angloparlantes alrededor del mundo.

Para los hispanohablantes en los EE.UU., Canada', Puerto Rico,
Europa y Australia (y Africa y Asia, aunque tengan una poblacio'n
hispanohablante mucho menor), hemos decidido reimprimir el
perio'dico mexicano aqui' en Nueva York y distribuirlo a todos los
que lo quieren. Para 10 nu'meros al an~o, los precios seguira'n
casi iguales: US$1 (o equivalente) para cada numero; US$13 anuales
para una subscripcio'n de primera clase en los EE.UU y PR (los
subscripciones de tercera no se ofrecera'n hasta que se acumula un
nu'mero ma's grande de subscriptores); US$18 anuales para una
subscripcio'n internacional; distribuidores de 10 perio'dicos o
ma's: 35 centavos cada uno (50 centavos para distribuidores
profesionales). Subscripciones de Amor y Rabia para presos,
personas con SIDA y soldados en Puerto Rico, los EE.UU. y Canada'
sera'n gratis. Para distribuir Amor y Rabia en latinoamerica favor
de contactar al grupo mexicano:

Amor y Rabia
Apdo Postal 11-351
CP 06101
Me'xico, D.F.
Me'xico

Si deseas un ejemplar fotocopiado de la edicio'n ma's reciente (o
cualquier otra edicio'n son: no. 0: 1993 An~o de Resistencia; no.
1 Enfrenta'ndose al Fascismo; no. 2 Resistencia Queer
(Homosexual); no. 3 Di'a Internacional de la Mujer; no. 5 Primero
de Mayo; no. 6 Estrategia Anarquista), favor de mandar US$2 cada
uno a:

Amor y Rabia/Love and Rage
PO Box 853  Stuyvesant Sta
New York, NY 10009
E-Mail: [e-mail]
        [e-mail]

Tambie'n se deseas subscribir o distribuir o si quieres ma's
informacio'n, favor de comunicarte con nosotros al 212-460-8390.

[Attencio'n presos, soldados y personas con SIDA: como no tenemos
forma de averiguar su preferencia, les mandaremos la edicio'n en
ingle's a menos que nos avisen que quieren aquella en espan~ola.
Si quieren ambos o para cualquier otro cambio en su subscipcio'n
gratis, favor de comunicarse con  nosotros en Nueva York.]--Grupo
de Procuccio'n, Nueva York
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                              -end-