The Advocate

Old Bottles, New Wine:
Renewing the Anarchist Tradition

Will Weikart
Anarchists have a long history of being varyingly 1. misunderstood and misrepresented, and 2. ignored in mass media and in the academy, respectively. To call anarchists misunderstood, however, is generous. As a group we have repeatedly tried to convey our message(s) and represent ourselves to a media that seems systematically incapable, in this era of the sound- and image-bite, of allowing even slightly nuanced statements. Especially since the Seattle anti-WTO protests of 1999, “The Anarchists” have served in the US at least as the infamous masked, black-clad, allegedly violent bogey(wo)men (read: scapegoats) of the anti-globalization (or alter-globalization) protest movement—in both the sensational mainstream media and the intelligence gathering efforts and pre-emptive repression by local and national law enforcement. No coincidence there—since so much fodder for the media is gathered directly and uncritically through other official, news-producing bureaucracies such as the propaganda wings of police department. Dominant myths that circulate are at best misunderstandings and misinformation; at worst they are outright lies which often take absurd form. (“Anarchists” plan to unleash venomous serpents on the city during RNC. No joke.)

Likewise, as a legitimate and coherent social movement, anarchists are rarely acknowledged as such by the dismissive or even hostile “academy”. This is due only in part to old debates on the left between orthodox and/or sectarian Marxists (many of whom found homes in university settings) and anarchists. This is increasingly disturbing since it has become clear to many observers that the global anarchist movement is growing and attracting new members every day. So the anarchists constitute a perpetual source of frustration for everyone from law enforcement to media to other potential allies on the left.

The view of the academy is understandable, as anarchists, particularly in the US, have typically harbored a mistrust of all institutions, which has not excluded the academy. Unfortunately, this is often translated as a dogmatic and widespread anti-theory, anti-intellectual stance in favor of “action.” This, one should note, is merely yet another appropriation of the broader anti-intellectual legacy and climate so unique to the US. As a graduate student, I share much of this anti-academic sensibility, but it does not follow that academism is comprised only of theory and intellectualism. The redheaded stepchildren of the left, anarchists’ own relative isolation is due at least in part to the old left and anarchists’ own self-imposed alienation. Everywhere we find disjunction where we should find conjunction.

Alas, on September 24-26, around 200 anarchists from the US and beyond gathered at the lushly verdant, quaint campus of Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont for the fourth annual Renewing the Anarchist Tradition (RAT) conference. Organizers said that this was the biggest draw of any RAT thus far. The conference serves as a much-needed attempt to address the central concerns of the anarchist movement, and provides a space for anarchists to share ideas and update theoretical foundations where needed. New York City sent many participants—at least three cars full—and among them, at least three CUNY GC students, two of whom were panelists/presenters.

This year’s conference was co-organized by the Institute for Social Ecology (ISE) and the Institute for Anarchist Studies. The Goddard campus is just minutes from the main ISE facility that offers classes and houses several computer terminals, a sizeable library and many resources for activists/thinkers who are particularly interested in ecology. Conference attendees stayed both in the empty Goddard College dorms (due to a recent financial crisis all students now live off-campus) and in tents on the ISE land. In accord with stereotypes, attendees were by and large white and young (college-aged) but there was notable age diversity, a pretty good gender balance, and some queer presence.

RAT clearly succeeds in creating a much-needed space and context for theoretically oriented anarchists (most of whom, indeed, are also activists involved in various projects “on the ground”) who think there is life beyond Bakunin, Proudhon and Kropotkin to strategize and share ideas. Panel topics were eclectic and covered topics as diverse as: anarcho-primitivism, Bataille’s radical subjectivity and carnival, fashion, autonomism, radical art movements and anarchism, the anti-authoritarian imagination in post-Bop music, dual power, the commodity, horizontalidad, gender, race and power, international solidarity, and post-anarchism (the long-overdue and promising cross-fertilization of post-structural theories and anarchist thought). There were also workshops on stenciling/street art and media, puppet performances, an art installation on the history of gender, and much campfire camaraderie.

The conference was possessed of a lively openness and general good will – something that made it far better than, say, the old Socialist Scholars Conference. Unlike the recent anti-authoritarian (but not explicitly anarchist) Life After Capitalism conference, RAT managed to avoid sectarian and vanguardist attempts at disruption or sabotage.

For more info on RAT please visit: http://www.homemadejam.org/renew

Will Weikart is a student in sociology at CUNY GC.