Anonymous Comrade writes:

Breaking the Ice:
Anarchist Men and Sexism in the Movement


Ernesto Aguilar

In Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil
Rights Movement the New Left Sara Evans writes in painful
detail about the mistreatment of women in political movements. Her
narrative is a sober reminder that sexism within movements has been
going on for years. Today we have many ongoing dialogs about sexism in
the anarchist movement. Most are led by women, and they have created a
space in which to engage constructively. Anarchist men are
unfortunately often silent on the issue of sexism and gender inequity
in our movement. As a male in a visible position, I'm both at fault for
not being more outspoken on it, and for being sexist and wrong on many
occasions. Without honest and self-critical efforts by men, efforts for
change could be for naught, because we are part of the problem. I write
this in hopes that other anarchist males take it upon themselves to act
on sexism and gender inequity and make both priorities.



In the days Evans writes about, many mistakes were made in focusing on
individual lifestyles rather than structural issues. These days, we
make some of the same errors. In my opinion, this discussion is
positioned around three points: 1.) understanding that the debate over
sexism and issues related to female-male relations isn't so much a
debate about actions, but legitimacy; 2.) understanding that all men
are responsible, and that we need to be forthright in admitting our
mistakes as a matter of political, rather than moral/personal,
principle; and 3.) understanding that anarchist women and men must take
an active role in shifting the dispute beyond individual-based
'accountability' and toward a community-based system of restorative
justice.

CIRCA–BF writes:

The Politics of Being Clandestine
Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army–Border Faction

The Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army–Border Faction (CIRCA-BF) consists of 33 rotating members who come from different affinity groups, collectives, and disOrganizations. We are all locals; we are all multinationals. We are a network of bodies without organs. We are in your group, your class, your family, your television, your neighborhood. You don't see us, but that is exactly our strength: our invisibility.

The Aestheticization of Politics

To not exist is our goal. Until then, we will joyously work hard to construct the conditions that allow for moments of autonomy and spontaneity to occur. Unpredictability, Spontaneity, Risk — these elements are being systematically eliminated from the practice of everyday life. We (dis)organized a Reclaim the Streets on January 20th in symbolic solidarity with the counter-inauguration protests in DC in order to retrieve the self-empowering aforementioned characteristics and import them back into the practice of everyday life. We believe that creative, nonviolent direct action is the appropriate methodology for achieving these ends.

Anonymous Comrade writs: The following interview with Spc. Aidan Delgado, a conscientious objector who spent six months of a one-year tour of Iraq at Abu Ghraib prison, appears in the Spring 2005 issue of LiP Magazine. Delgado will be presenting a slideshow and talk about his experiences on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2005 (Iraqi election day), in San Francisco at the Beta Lounge, 1072 Illinois at 22nd Street, at 7:30. For more information contact boal at sonic dot net.


In Good Conscience
An interview with conscientious objector Aidan Delgado
by SCOTT FLEMING

Aidan Delgado, 23, was a Florida college student looking for a change when he decided to join the army reserve. It was his misfortune to sign an enlistment contract on the morning of September 11, 2001. After finishing the paperwork, he saw a television broadcast of the burning World Trade Center and realized he might be in for more than one weekend a month of low-key service. In the ensuing months, Delgado became dedicated to Buddhism and its principles of pacifism. By April 2003, when he began his yearlong tour in Iraq, he was openly questioning whether he could participate in the war there in good conscience. Having grown up in Cairo, Delgado spoke Arabic and had not been steeped in the racism that drove many of his fellow soldiers. When he surrendered his rifle and declared himself a conscientious objector in the middle of 2003, he was punished by his officers and ostracized by his peers. His unit, the 320th Military Police Company, spent six months in the southern city of Nasiriyah, and another six months helping to run the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. Now out of the army, Delgado says the prison abuse that has been covered by the likes of 60 Minutes and the New Yorker was the tip of the iceberg: Brutality, often racially motivated, infected the entire prison and the entire military operation in Iraq.

"Fascism, Terror, Pavlov's Dog, Fear and Security:

Bush and a Brave New Gilead of 1984"

A. Cascadian

In an Orwellian reality come true where Oceania is at war with
Eastasia one moment and Eurasia the next moment now the fascist
controlled United States continues a dystopian policy of perpetual
war. The father of fascism, Benito Mussolini, once said, "War is to
man what maternity is to a woman. From a philosophical and doctrinal
viewpoint, I do not believe in perpetual peace."

In Orwell's 1984 war was not for conquest of another nation-state or
territory, but was a means to control the society by means of fear and
a forced ignorance.