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(just thought some might be interested in these articles by American
Anarcha-Feminists. Nimda"
<br>
<br>
Anarcha-Feminists Take to the Streets ...Because We Don't
Need Anyone's Permission.
<br>
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<br>
by Anarcha Feminists <br>
Sunday May 2nd, 2010 12:49 AM <br>
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<br>
This was the communique distributed before today's Reclaim
the Streets. A call for an Anarcha-Feminist Bloc had been made and many
anarchist women and queer people of all sorts took to the streets. <br>
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<br>
This is only a beginning. We come together today as
anarcha-feminists excited because of this new beginning.
Anarcha-feminism has
barely been flushed out, put into action, or recognized as a politic by
even
ourselves. And many of us have never known of each other's existence,
therefore
never knowing what we are capable of. We find it fitting to meet in the
streets, where strong social bonds are created and great turns in
history
unfold. Make friends and comrades this May Day and expect great things
to come.
<br>
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<br>
There’s a new anarchism on the tips of all of our tongues.
But there is also a legacy of radical and powerful movements that we
may find
enlightening if we are aware enough to not get caught in the trappings
that
brought them to an end. In order to determine what we wish to be we
must see
where we began... <br>
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<br>
The New Left movements pushed us forward light years in
their declarations that struggle is to be found on many, many more
fronts than
class alone. Movements that we are the most proud of in our left
histories –
Black Power, Queer Liberation, Women's Liberation, etc. – were quite
literally
crafting a future reality that looked very promising. As these
movements crumbled
or weakened we can see how aspects of these struggles that lacked a
critique of
authoritarian (and especially State) power fell into the arms of
liberalism.
Liberalism assumes and maintains the delusion that a government or any
kind of
higher power is necessary and responsible for looking after us, to
ensure that
all is peaceful and equal. We are kept in a state of perpetual
childhood, where
all of our daily actions and disputes are subject to judgment by the
guiding
hand of authoritarian father figures from God to government, governor,
mayor,
banker, husband, to daddy dearest. <br>
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<br>
And so identity politics entered the scene, stage Left.
Post-colonial, feminist, and especially queer politics that once fought
for
autonomous power distinct from normative society became a sad shadow of
its
formal self as they became a politic about recognition within society,
which
made these movements dependent on the structures responsible for their
unique
tribulations. <br>
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<br>
Some of our comrades have suggested we throw out identity
politics all together. And this feels like a tempting idea. We are
tired of the
trend of tokenization. Every political event we attend someone is
tokenizing
their self, their mom, or some abstract group of people. Sometimes this
happens
even in the name of “not tokenizing!” We see this as a depressing
attempt to
establish legitimacy as a victim (as if that is a cool thing to be!) <br>
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<br>
Within this context the activist's job has become that of
making diagnosis after diagnosis of who is and is not oppressed. Each
individual carries with them all sorts of unique atrocities that have
been
imposed on their bodies and psyches as well as horrors they've done to
others.
It's dishonest to sum up our lived experiences as that of a “woman,” an
“immigrant,” a “gender queer,” or even a combination of any number of
recognizable marginal identities. <br>
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<br>
But this isn't even the bigger problem. Identity
politic-obsessed activism looks to make us feel safe within systems
that are
not designed to be safe or freeing and does not take action to
dismantle the
system completely. The Left has built an army of Gandhis. Gandhi, mind
you, so
loved and romanticized the oppressed of his country that he could not
bring
himself to endorse a social order which might end the existence of
their oppression.
Even though he was seen as very radical at the time, he proved to be a
liberal
at heart. Ending caste discrimination is quite different from
abolishing a
caste system completely. We must make the decision whether it is more
in our
interests to demand equal rights or to fight for a future (or maybe a
present)
where demanding anything from anyone other than ourselves is senseless.
<br>
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<br>
There is nothing powerful in being valorized, recognized,
and romanticized as victims. Who cares if men know that some huge
statistic of
us is raped by them? Does that stop rape? Who cares if everyone
remembers to
get your preferred pronoun right? Does that help you when you're in
custody and
the cops are discussing what's between your legs so they can determine
which cell
block you “belong” in? And who cares if your neighbor is so outraged by
your
boyfriend’s violent outbursts that she calls the police? You do,
because you
are the one with a police gun in your face and you are the one later
bailing
out your boyfriend despite the fact that the 1st of the month is
quickly
approaching. That which establishes our horrible positions in society
will
never abolish those positions. And we want out. We no longer want to be
victims, but we know that we can not count on the State, men, white
people,
straight people, the cops – whoever it is for you – to do this for us. <br>
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<br>
Ironically, despite our critiques – and sometimes hatred –
of identity politics, we find ourselves coming together around a
(somewhat
loose) identity: We are some people who no longer want to be victims of
gender
tyranny and misogyny. Within this grouping we are hoping to circumvent,
to a
certain extent, our gender and what that means for us when we are
living our
lives in this Man's World so we might gain some insight as to what it
might
look like to not have gender dynamics influence every interaction. We
come
together to fight for a reality where identities such as “man,”
“woman,” and
“trans” are logical impossibilities. We know that together we can tend
to our
misgivings that these desires are irrational and get down to business. <br>
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<br>
We will not, in fact, be throwing out identity politics all
together. If nothing else because we refuse to let liberals and
non-profits
have our radical politics. But also because we do find it useful to
identify
and analyze our miserable conditions in order to have a point of a
departure,
in order to know very clearly what we do not want to be. <br>
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<br>
We do not want a feminism that looks like a social worker
behind a desk with concerned eyebrows. We want a feminism that stays up
late at
the kitchen table convincing us that we deserve better. We do not want
a
feminism that will put us up in a run down state shelter for a short
while
until we're “back on our feet.” We want a feminism that will break back
into
our house we were just kicked out of and tell the land lord he'll have
hell to
pay from a mob of angry bitches if he attempts eviction again. <br>
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<br>
And when one of us is raped and murdered for our gender we
definitely do not want more empty calls for “justice” and quiet
candle-lit
vigils. We want a feminism that acts from a much wider range of emotion
and
expectation. We want a visible expression of exasperation, anger, and
frustration that makes obvious that we are finished with these
routines: the
routines of violence against women and queer people, the routines of
quietly
shaking our heads at these tragedies, the routines of asking for
change. We
want a feminism that is not afraid to try new things, that is dynamic
enough to
know that at times healing comes in the form of vengeance and change
comes in
the form of destroying what destroys you. <br>
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<br>
This MayDay anarcha-feminism may just look like a riotous
street party with a contingent that is strikingly dudeless, but that
rumbling
you hear is what lies right beneath the surface. Great ruptures and new
worlds
are in store, but we can not be passive spectators in creating our new
selves.
Kill the liberal in your head. There are no excuses now for not
exchanging
numbers, saying hello on the street and building relationships where we
plan,
scheme, and push each other out of victim-hood by being the toughest
comrades
possible in our common struggles and, perhaps more importantly, in our
uncommon
struggles. <br>
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<br>
We're in this together.<span style="">
</span><br>
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<br>
Some words, ideas, and inspirations were taken from the
following: <br>
Sex, Race, and Class by Selma James; the editorial in Upping
the Anti #9; Gramsci is Dead, Anarchist Currents in the Newest Social
Movements, by Richard Day; We'll Show You Crazy Bitches, communiqué
from Take
Back the Night Brooklyn Style; and countless difficult conversations.
<br>
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<br>
<a href="http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/05/02/18646439.php">http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/05/02/18646439.php</a>
<br>
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<br>
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<br>
Although in recent years Take Back the Night has been co-opted
by liberal feminists, it has its roots in the widespread unrest of
Italy in the
late seventies. In 1976, a seventeen-year-old was gang-raped in Rome. A
year
later, when her case went to trial, she was gang-raped again by the
same men:
and this time, her whole body was slashed with razors in an attempt to
keep her
silent. Within hours, fifteen thousand women mobilized, uniformly
dressed like
the sex workers common to the district; “NO MORE MOTHERS, WIVES AND
DAUGHTERS:
LET’S DESTROY THE FAMILIES!” was the cry heard in the street. They came
just
short of burning the neighborhood to the ground. <a
href="http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/11127">http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/11127</a>
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