December 2007 Archives

Right on the heels of the Ron Paul controversy is a poll that AOL asks readers: was Lincoln wrong to declare war on the South?  We at BANA resoundingly reply an affirmative YES and a surprisingly high number of Americans agree:

Let the world know your opinion and set the record straight on the freedom of self-determination!

Greetings,

I'm pleased to announce the latest effort of the Bay Area National Anarchists, Hadenuff Zine.  Named in honor of Comrade Joe Hadenuff of Folk and Faith, the special first issue is 22 back to back pages printed on 8.5 x 11 paper folded over.  Designed with a punk nationalist flair in mind, this issue contains the following content:

Editorial
What do we want // affinity networks
WTH is "National" Anarchy?
Cultural Reviews including music,
a Southern nationalist film director,
and Metapedia
Finis, a poem
Events of Interest
and more

Contributors are the BANA editor and Komrade J.

Hard copies of the zine are available for $4 to cover printing and shipping costs (international rates may vary).  Donations may be made to the pledgie account on the BANA website on the right hand column, let me know if you need additional details.  Digital copies may be available by special request to the editor.

Going around the press today is the killing of CIA agent and corrupt Pakistan politician Benazir Bhutto.  Anyone the U.S., British Labour party, and E.U attempt to lionize must be an enemy of the people they claim to serve.  The U.K. Gorgon [aka Gordon] Brown was quoted as saying the killers were "cowards afraid of democracy."  If the stewards of democracy weren't as vile as George Bush and himself that might mean something of importance but liberal democracy is never important.

More info at the BBC.

Knowledge is power and a project going by the name Lecturefox is giving that power to you.  Dozens of lecture notes from dozens of programs at leading universities.  Have fun: http://www.lecturefox.com/

This election season, members of the Northeast Anarchist Network (NEAN) will launch a campaign across the region aiming to discredit representative democracy and to promote truly democratic alternatives. Like most people in this country, we are tired of the same political game: two parties, and no good choices. For 2004’s presidential election, the rallying call was “The lesser of two evils,” and even though Bush clearly stole that election, nobody cared enough to do anything about it because Kerry only sucked a little bit less. Now the wingnuts are coming out of the woodworks again, kissing babies, debating the hot topics and making election promises that no one expects them to keep.

More and more, US voters are realizing that there is really only one party—the corporate party—which makes sense as candidates need millions of dollars in campaign contributions and airtime on corporate media to even have a fighting shot.

We may have a female candidate, we may have an African-American candidate, hell we even have a Mormon, but you will never see a poor or working-class candidate. Even if you did, it wouldn’t matter because for you to have ever heard their name or seen their face, they would have to have sold out to the rich. Why do we let the greedy capitalists bastards trick us into thinking we’re using democracy, and then pick our candidates for us? In a real democracy, we would vote on everything: whether our communities should have more schools or jails, whether companies should lessen their environmental impact or continue to destroy the earth, whether we should send soldiers to die for corporate greed or not, whether our cities should let developers bulldoze our homes, etc. There is a reason we DON’T get to vote on these topics: the rich know they’d lose! We know how the politicians vote on these issues, for they vote with their wallets and not with their hearts. The good news is that in a real democracy, we don’t need politicians! I kid you not, my friends, another world is possible. Throughout much of human history, people have lived in well-organized societies without politicians or government. Anarchists have worked to build such societies for centuries, writing thousands of books and essays, projects, organizing communities and experimental societies, and launching countless revolts and revolutions. Even today, thousands of people throughout the world practice true democracy—including some in our neighbor to the South (See Mexico’s Zapatistas and the Popular Assemblies of the People of Oaxaca). They don’t need politicians to make decisions for them, and neither do we! So this election season, vote or don’t vote, it won’t make a lick of difference either way. Dedicate your thought, time and energy into building stronger communities in your neighborhood, at your job, in your school. Find cracks in the political machine, the places where true democracy can grow, and fill those cracks: encourage your friends and peers to work together to make your own decisions. Strive to build a movement for popular democracy, so that 4 years from now, when they once again try to trick us into thinking we are using democracy, we will laugh at them and run the politicians out of office. For a true democracy, Viva La Anarquia, Muera Toda Autoridad!

~

Members of the Northeast Anarchist Network have initiated a two-tiered campaign to discredit representative democracy and promote direct democracy and anarchy. Armed with centuries of failure of representative government, we will be creating and distributing propaganda that undermines the credibility and attacks the legitimacy of the U.S. political system, while at the same time introducing alternatives such as local autonomy and neighborhood assemblies, highlighting their successes in other parts of the world.

We welcome others to distribute this material as it is made available. Furthermore, we call upon anti-authoritarians to creatively and effectively target all upcoming speeches, caucuses, debates, votes, and everything else related to this electoral sock puppet show. We also encourage the planning of public events, forums, and community discussions to achieve the aims described above. Let’s make our presence known!

The book "The continuing Appeal of Nationalism" by Fredy Perlman in 1985 by remains the de facto current thinking on nationalism in anarchist circles.  The book is written in the format of a classist analysis of nationalism from a purely Marxist materialistic basis.  That isn't to say that his specific scientific materialism is the best or most enlightened lens to look through history.  Nevertheless the short work of 85 pages contains an insightful and well read knowledge of historical social movements (again in a limited weltanschung of history). 

Needless to say this is how many anarchists view the subject from the seemingly correct scathing of the nationalism that describes that brings on exploitation, slavery, wars, injustice, xenophobia, and racism.  Perlman goes into great detail how nationalism has been utilized by both Right and Left wing movements. 

Criticisms could be surprising and bold, even to agents of Zionist terrorism are included in the study.   I think this book presents a picture of what National Anarchism is not interested in recreating, supporting, or justifying nationalist projects in the wanton events of past and contemporary.  

Our view of the guiding influence of liberalism in our society can be surmised by the statement of Oswald Spengler Prussianism and Socialism:

"Liberalism, in its German form, has always stood for mental sterility, for the ignorance and incomprehension of historical necessities. It has meant the inability to cooperate with others or to make sacrifices for others. Its position has always been one of entirely negative criticism, though not as an expression of an indomitable will to change society—as manifested by Bebel’s Socialists—but simply out of the desire to "be different." While our liberals have never been at a loss for "standpoints" to adopt, they have lacked the inner vitality and discipline, the confidence and purposeful vigor that are so characteristic of the English form of liberalism."

Contemporary anarchists and socialists are the same to varying degrees of self importance.  Again from Spenglers text, is largely how I see a non-statist characteristic of the nation, speaking of a very different kind of socialism than what is commonly assumed:

    "The meaning of socialism is that life is dominated not by the contrast of rich and poor but by rank as determined by achievement and ability. That is our kind of freedom: freedom from the economic capriciousness of the individual.  My fervent hope is that no one will remain hidden who was born with the ability to command, and that no one is given the responsibility for commanding who lacks the inborn talent for doing so. Socialism means ability, not desire. Not the quality of intentions but the quality of accomplishments is decisive. I turn to our youth. I call upon all who have marrow in their bones and blood in their veins. Train yourselves! Become men! We need no more ideologists, no more chatter about Bildung and cosmopolitanism and Germany’s intellectual mission. We need hardness, we need a courageous skepticism, we need a class of socialistic mastertypes. Once again: Socialism means power, power, and more power. Thoughts and schemes are nothing without power. The path to power has already been mapped: the valuable elements of German labor in union with the best representatives of the Old Prussian state idea, both groups determined to build a strictly socialist state to democratize our nation in the Prussian manner; both forged into a unit by the same sense of duty, by the awareness of a great obligation, by the will to obey in order to rule, to die in order to win, by the strength to make immense sacrifices in order to accomplish what we were born for, what we are, what could not be without us.  We are socialists. Let us hope that it will not have been in vain."

Speaking more about what this means he adds, "To the Prussian way of thinking, the will of the individual is subsumed under the will of the totality. This is not just herd instinct; it is an expression of sublime strength and freedom, something which the outsider can never understand. Even in its proletarian form it rejects the workers of other countries together with their egoistic pseudo-socialism. Servility, snobbishness— these are words for attitudes that are understood and despised signs of degeneration [[to be avoided at all cost]]. The genuine Prussian despises no one; but he is himself feared." A possibly valid criticism is that those principals can't possibly be applied to anti-authoritarianism or if they could it would be undesirable. National Anarchy posits that any post revolutionary area will have zones made of different demographics with different language and or different cultural influences and lifestyles.  This will be due to the natural distribution of people or decisions made collectively.  We advocate a non violent, tribal, syndicalist/gild based economy with an emphasis on sustainable living, and diplomatic/respectful relations between neighbors, communities, and outlander areas.  Each area would surely have local customs for the administration of each area.  In contemporary anarchist thought this could be referred to bio-diversity of primitivist decentralist ideas.

As far as race as a "people" is concerned, I think most National Anarchists believe this in regard to the principal of Julius Evola's criticism of racism in Vita Nova: "The error of some extreme `racists' who believe that the return of a race to its ethnic purity ipso facto equals its rebirth as a people consists of exactly this: they treat the human being as if he were a purebred cat, horse, or dog. To an animal, the conservation or restoration of its racial unity (in its narrow definition) can be everything. But it is not so with the human. . . . It would be too convenient if the simple fact that one belongs to a pure race were to bestow, without further ado, a `quality' in the higher sense."   Needless to say to that "race" in a limited biological sense is of no value unless an individual should have possession of personal values good to their community. 

We believe that the globalist push for uniformity and monocultural/plurlism dictatorship in Western societies stem from capitalism and other universalist philosophies.  National Anarchists argue that philosophies such as liberalism and centerist conservatism so prominent in the anarchist movement (and wider society) today not true, the most politically correct, or desirable to implement under all circumstances.  This is especially true from a movement that arguably finds itself weaker after one hundred years of history in North America.  At this time their are very few options available to anti-statists as the end of the political illusions they argue about gets superseded by the North American Union.  We say it's time to divest from the entire capitalist system, do it yourself, grow your own food, live sustainability, develop strong relationships with friends and  extended family and help get your people off the grid. 

National Anarchism could probably be called Tribal Anarchism in the opinion of this author.  It is important to not attach to much importance to labels of the name of the "movement" as long as it contains the above characteristics that is the name I will be using.  Other examples of the modes of social organization that come to mind are the pirate utopias, Assassins, and Tong's such as Hakim Bay has written of.  Naturally it could be found in religious groups, temporary autonomous zones, trade unions, Pioneer Little Europe, American Indian territories,
ethnic centers, rural or urban areas and polis-like institutions.  In less group orientated terms it's developing a deliberately meaningful involvement with friends and extended family that by it's very nature addresses the alienation that capitalism has brought to our communities.  Our goal is to deliver the fatal blow to capitalism by divesting it of the means by which it operates.  That means forgoing it as much as possible.  Certain communities, like the Amish, operate on a social structure that is well suited to living sustainably.  Others, like vagabonds and suburbanites, do not.

I'll end with a message of the Situationists,

The Lakota Indians based in the plains have withdrawn from all previous treaties with U.S. government and have thrown away their U.S. citizenship.  This is a historic event and absolutely supported by National Anarchists.  This could be called National Anarchy in action.  We support the self-determination of all peoples and we believe that in the rights of indigenous people throw off the yoke of statist oppression, in particular the brutal and parasitic U.S. government.  In the Withdraw Letter of December 17th 2007 they say the following:

"We as the freedom loving Lakotah People are the predecessor sovereign of Dakota Territory as evidenced by the
Treaties with the United States Government, including, but not limited to, the Treaty of 1851 and the Treaty of 1868 at Fort Laramie. 
 
Lakotah, formally and unilaterally  withdraws from all agreements and treaties imposed by the United States
Government on the Lakotah People.   
 
Lakotah , and the population therein, have waited for at least 155 years for the United States of America to adhere to the provisions of the above referenced treaties. The continuing violations of these treaties’ terms have resulted in the near annihilation of our people physically, spiritually, and culturally.
 
Lakotah rejects United States Termination By Appropriation policy from 1871 to the present.
 
In addition, the evidence of gross violations of the above referenced treaties are listed herein.
 
Lakotah encourages the United States of America, through its Government ,to enter into dialogue with Lakotah
regarding the boundaries, the land and the resources therein. Please contact the Lakotah Interests Section,  Naomi Archer, at (828) 230-1404 or  info@Lakotafreedom.com.
 
Should the United States and its subordinate governments choose not to act in good faith concerning the rebirth of
our nation, we hereby advise the United States Government that Lakotah will begin to administer liens against real
estate transactions within the five state area of Lakotah."

As National Anarchists we extend our full support to the Lakota people and wish them full success in their claim of national sovereignty.  We encourage all peoples in North America to make similar withdraws of participation from their terrestrial government and form autonomous communities united by culture, language, and spiritual ethos.   Let freedom prevail!

"Only in the invisible qualities of nations, which are hidden from their own eyes-qualities as the means whereby these nations remain in touch with the source of original life-only therein is to be found the guarantee of their present and future worth, virtue, and merit. If these qualities are dulled by admixture and worn away by friction, the flatness that results will bring about a separation from spiritual nature, and this in its turn will cause all men to~be fused together in their uniform and collective destruction."

Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Thirteenth Address, Addresses to the Gerrnan Nation

I. THE GRIEVANCES OF THE PLEBS

   The Power of the Patricians.—The patricians and plebeians had united in their efforts to drive out the kings; but when the struggle against the kingship was ended, the chief fruits of the victory fell to the patricians. The plebeians could, it is true, still vote in the comitia centuriata; but they could not hold any of the new offices, nor could they sit in the senate. Rome became a republic, but it was an aristocratic, and not a democratic republic; that is, the chief power rested not in the whole people, but in a particular class. The plebeians might perhaps have submitted to the government of the patricians, if it had not been exercised in a selfish and oppressive manner. But the patrician rule proved to be as despotic as that of the kings; and a long and fierce struggle ensued between the two orders. As the patricians were generally more wealthy than the plebeians, the conflict became at first a struggle between the rich and the poor, a contest for a more equal distribution of wealth.

   Poverty and Distress of the Plebeians.—The late wars had left the plebeians in a very dependent and deplorable condition. The wealthy patricians, for the most part, lived in the city; and their property was protected by the city walls. But the homes of the plebeians were generally in the country. Accordingly, when they were serving in the army, their little farms were neglected, or ravaged by the enemy, their families were driven away, and their property was destroyed. In this way, while serving their country, they were deprived of their houses and fields, and of the means of subsistence, and so were reduced to a condition of poverty and great distress.

   The Unjust Law of Debt.—The sorest burden which now rested upon the plebeians was the harsh law of debt. Having lost their property by the misfortunes of war, they were obliged to borrow money of the rich patricians; and they were thus reduced to the condition of a debtor class. But a debtor in the early days of Rome was especially wretched. If he could not pay his debt, he was liable to be arrested, thrown into a dungeon, and made the slave of his creditor. His lot was chains, stripes, and slavery.

   The law of debt was not only harsh in itself, but its effect was to keep the poor in a continual state of poverty, from which they could not easily escape.

   The Unequal Division of the Public Land.—Another cause which kept the plebeians in a state of poverty was the unjust distribution of the public land (ager publicus) which had been acquired in war. This land properly belonged to all the people, and might have been used to relieve the distress of the poor. But the government was in the hands of the patricians, and they disposed of this land for their own benefit; they allowed it to be “occupied,” at a nominal rent, by members of their own order. As long as the land remained public, it could not be sold by the occupants; but the longer the rich patricians retained the occupation of this land, the more they would look upon it as their own property, and ignore the fact that it belonged to the whole Roman people. So that the common people were deprived of their just share of the land which they had helped to conquer.


II. THE FIRST SECESSION AND ITS RESULTS

   First Secession of the Plebeians.—It was the hard law of debt which first drove the plebeians to revolt. As there was no legal way to redress their wrongs, they decided that they would no longer serve in the army, but leave the patricians to fight their own battles. They therefore deserted their general, marched in full array to a hill beyond the Anio, which they called the Sacred Mount (Mons Sacer), and proposed to form an independent city (B.C. 494). The patricians saw that the loss of the plebeian army would be the destruction of Rome. They were therefore compelled to make a solemn compact to the effect that the debts of all persons who were insolvent should be canceled; and that those who had been imprisoned on account of debt should be released.

   The Tribunes of the People.—But the most important result of the first secession was the creation of a new office, that of tribune of the people. In order to protect the plebeians from any further oppressive acts on the part of the patrician magistrate, it was agreed to appoint two tribunes from among the plebeians themselves. These new officers were given the power to “veto”—that is, to forbid—the act of any magistrate which bore unjustly upon any citizen. In order that the tribunes might exercise their authority without hindrance, their persons were made “inviolable,”—which means that they could not be arrested, and that anyone who interfered with them in the exercise of their lawful duty could be put to death. The tribunes were assisted by two aediles, who were also chosen from the plebeian body.

   The Plebeian Assembly.—The meetings which the plebeians had occasionally held before this time now assumed the character of a permanent assembly (concilium plebis). This assembly could be called together by the tribunes, who were permitted to address the people in regard to their interests; and no magistrate was allowed to interrupt them while speaking or to disperse this assembly (lex Icilia, B.C. 492). The assembly could also pass resolutions (plebiscita), which were binding upon the plebeians, but not as yet upon the whole people. It was not many years before the plebeian assembly was given the right to elect their own tribunes and aediles (lex Publilia, B.C. 472). In this way the plebeians acquired a position in the state which they had never before held.

   The Agrarian Law of Spurius Cassius.—The second great cause of complaint was, as we have seen, the unjust distribution of the public land. To remove this injustice was the effort of the consul Spurius Cassius. This man was both a patriot and a statesman. He loved the people, and he labored to protect their interests. In order to strengthen Rome against her foreign enemies, he first of all made a new treaty with the Latin towns, and also a treaty with the neighboring tribe of the Hernicans.

   But the most famous act of Sp. Cassius was the proposal of the first “agrarian law,” that is, a law intended to reform the division of the public land (B.C. 486). It was not his purpose to take away any private land which legally belonged to the patricians; but to make a more just distribution of the land which properly belonged to the whole state. When this law was brought forward, the patricians used their influence to prevent its passage. After his year of office had expired, Sp. Cassius was charged with treason and with the attempt to make himself king. He was tried, condemned, scourged, and beheaded; and thus one of Rome’s greatest patriots suffered the doom of a traitor. But the people remembered Sp. Cassius, and his name was inscribed upon a tablet and placed in the Forum, where it remained for many generations.


III. WARS WITH THE VOLSCIANS, AEQUIANS, AND ETRUSCANS

   The Foreign Enemies of Rome.—While these struggles were going on to relieve the distress of the poor plebeians, the frontiers were continually threatened by foreign enemies. The chief enemies of Rome at this time were the Volscians, the Aequians, and the Etruscans. The Volscians occupied the southern plains of Latium, near the seacoast. The Aequians held the slopes of the Apennines on the northeast. The Etruscans held all their original territory on the right bank of the Tiber, except the hill Janiculum. On every side Rome was beset by foes; and for many years her armies fought in defense of their homes, and almost within sight of the city. By the treaties which Sp. Cassius had formed, the Romans, the Latins, and the Hernicans made common cause in repelling these attacks. There is no continuous history of these frequent wars, but the Roman historians have preserved the memory of them in certain legends, which were sacred to the Romans themselves, and which we should not forget if we would understand the character and spirit of the Roman people.

   Coriolanus and the Volscians.—The Volscian wars have left us the story of Coriolanus, which tells us that this young patrician opposed the distribution of grain among the plebeians; that he was threatened by the common people and fled to the Volscians, and led an army against his native city; that his mother and his wife went to the Volscian camp and pleaded with him to cease his wars upon Rome; that Rome was thus saved, and a temple was built to commemorate the patriotism of the Roman women.

   Cincinnatus and the Aequians.—The memory of the Aequian wars is preserved in the story of the Roman patriot Cincinnatus, who was called from his country home to rescue the Roman army, which was surrounded by the Aequians, and threatened with destruction in a narrow defile in Mt. Algidus, near the Alban hills (see map, page 46); and who with great speed and skill defeated the Aequian army, compelling it to “pass under the yoke” as a sign of submission, and then returned the next evening to Rome in triumph. The “yoke” consisted of a spear supported in a horizontal position by two spears fixed upright in the ground.

   The Fabii and the Etruscans.—With the Etruscan wars is linked the story of the Fabian gens, which was one of the greatest patrician houses of Rome; and which, having volunteered to carry on the war against the Etruscans at its own expense, was, with the exception of one person, utterly destroyed by the enemy. The Fabian gens was therefore honored for having sacrificed itself in the defense of Rome.

   These stories should be read, not as an accurate narration of facts, but because they show the kind of virtues that the early Romans most admired.

http://www.forumromanum.org/history/morey07.html

The New Black Panther Party showed up intending to address their criminal interests in defending two black home robbers who were killed by the home owner during a burglary attempt. Original blog post at http://www.blogsofwar.com/

"For the authentic revolutionary conservative, what really counts is to be faithful not to past forms and institutions, but rather to principles of which such forms and institutions have been particular expressions, adequate for a specific period of time and in a specific geographical area."

Julius Evola, Men Among the Ruins