Anarchy: a journal of desire armed. #37, Summer 1993 LETTERS part 4 -includes "Anarchist Contacts" @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ A knack of demagogues Dear Anarchy, There's a certain timely quality about "Max Anger's Song." [see Anarchy #35, page 17] At the same time it has a timelessness, an echo of the ages. He writes "On the lives of the rich pile a mountain of grief/For it's cuttin' 'em/And guttin' 'em/ That brings us relief" and "what's their spilt blood when we're happy and gay." Timely in that Serbian thugs could substitute `Croat' or `Moslem' for `rich', put it to the tune of an old folk song with nationalist connotations, and have music for the next gang rape. Azerbaijan= is and Armenians could share the poem, each substituting the name of the other for `rich'. Timeless in the sense that the Iroquois could chant it in days of yore to the genocide against the Erie. And would the NSDAP have needed Horst Wessel if they'd had this poem? The Kristallnacht rhythms of "The city's been conquered by arson and looting" are too clear to miss. The creation of simplistic solutions to real problems caricature and dehumanize individuals with a label and unleash a blind violence. With such a strategy it becomes possible to `justify' Vietnamese children in ditches - possibly Cong and just gooks - or the dropping of a bomb on non-combatants in a Baghdad shelter - `they' started it. And just as the dehumanization of people through the use of labels - nigger, honkie, raghead, rich pigs - leads to acts of evil that could not be justified against the vast majority so labelled if they were viewed as individuals, so too does violence have a logic of its own. Regardless of whether it begins as a tool to achieve justice or not it seems that ultimately those who benefit are those who love it best - a Czar toppled, a Stalin arises. It is certainly not something that we anarchists should glorify because the social relationships that it gives birth to are not tolerance and freedom but dominance and harsh repression. At best bloodshed is a necessity borne of desperation, an intolerable repression that cannot be otherwise eased. Beware of those who mistake the tool for the revolution and sing rapturously and rapaciously of it. It becomes a `good' in itself and an indicator of the world that will follow. Even those, like Makhno, who used it as a necessary tool have fallen prey to its logic of domination. As the anarchist historian Voline related in his Unknown Revolution, Makhno had so dehumanized the enemy that `their' women were gang raped by the guerilla and his men. Just who are meant by `rich'? The heads of certain specified companies? All lawyers, rock stars and athletes? `Their' families? Does the `rich' label justify a car bomb that kills a child as well as the intended victim? Perspective is involved here too - where I come from maybe Max would be considered rich... while he's stalking his rich, may be someone is stalking him as rich. Once you define = it, how do you propose to make others with a love of violence adhere to your definition of appropriate targets? Too often others play out the ancient tribal urge to violence against the `other' along racial, national, linguistic, religious or ideological lines. What we need is to understand the social and economic forces involved in repression of freedom, but not to cease viewing each person by her or his actions within the social context. We need in short not to resort to simplistic, dehumanizing jingoism as a solution. We need also to realize that our actions bear a relationship to what we achieve. A celebration of gore and pain is not a path to a free world and a joyful, just society. Instead we should be slow to resort to violence - slow and loath. Perhaps we need to understand the price of it as the young Russian revolutionaries at the turn of this gory century understood it - to take a life, even in a just cause, is to forfeit your own. Related to this rant is a brief commentary on what seemed to me a rebirth of Black Panther chic in Adam Bregman's article. What happened during the L.A. riots was not fun. People of all races were outraged by the King verdict and took to the streets in protest. Racist demagogues very quickly dehumanized the non-blacks as the Enemy and street gangs that customarily prey on South Central's people united to do what they most enjoy - cause pain, maim and disfigure, laugh at the suffering of others. The endzone dance over the writhing figure of the trucker attacked not for anything he'd done but because he was white and whites had been dehumanized - that was the kind of Dachau fun the riots were. Unfortunately there are those so intent on finding a revolution to call their own that any bloodfest will do as the authentic item, like the anarchists so quick to take up the cause of Lenin and often so unhealthily slow to drop it. The Huey Newtons and Uncle Joes and Ch=82s and Maos and Crips become the unlikely heroes of people whose love of freedom becomes corrupted into love of violence. Don't confuse violence with revolution. Don't let GI Joes and Rambos and black flag waving John Waynes convince you that their greater devotion to killing makes them the true revolutionaries. It's no real change at all from the status quo. One gang as opposed to another, one set of macho thugs or a PC set of macho thugs. I have a vision of free, smiling children, not the Nechaevite goal of being "merry, while I tarry, on top of the man." =20 I am Naked Child =20 No address listed Violation and distrust i enjoyed reading "an unrepentant pedophile's" letter in #34, fall '92. his childhood lover apparently helped him to transcend a horrid situation. unconditional love and acceptance are rare and precious. so i'll jump right into my own situation, and make my point along the way. my own situation was this. i'm about four years old. my father and i are on the living room floor. we are naked. we're playing. i'm having fun. he's bouncing me up and down on his belly. i'm leaning back against his legs, trying to stay upright, all the more difficult for my giggling. but then, it's not fun any more because he's gone. well, he's still underneath me but he's not paying attention to me any more, so it's not fun. he keeps bouncing and i fall forward onto his chest. i lay there, bouncing, bored and a little scared. it's not about us having fun any more, he's doing the same thing but he's not paying attention to me and i don't understand. then it's wet on his belly and that scares me. but he still doesn't pay attention to me and i feel lonely and i want it to stop. here's another of my situations. i'm about eight years old. he's tickling me, poking at me, at my ribs, between my legs. he's making like it's fun, but it's not. i don't want him to touch me and it hurts, but he's making like it's fun. i try to keep my legs closed, but he pulls them open and pokes me. i try to fend off his fingers but he's bigger and stronger than me. and besides, he's playing. it's fun. between my screams and tears and protests are giggles that come when he pokes my ribs. so see, it's fun. right? the situation was this. he's bigger and stronger. he's my father and he takes care of me. he's older and he knows more. he tells me that i like it. i say no. he continues. no, i don't want this to be happening. but he continues anyway. twenty years pass, and now my situation is this. memories that were rapping at my consciousness now regularly just smash straight on through, and i have a hell of a mess to attend to. but i can look out and see why the only time i felt i was worth anything was when i was fucking someone. why that someone was usually distant and abusive. why i confused fucking with love. why i was overwhelmed with grief and panic every time someone touched my breast. why it always seemed that i had something evil inside me, a secret, and if anyone got too close they'd find out. my own will was overthrown by this adult who tried to convince me that i was doing something enjoyable. i do remember pain. but what i remember most distinctly, what i was left with each time my father forced himself on me, are feelings of powerlessness, rage, isolation, violation and distrust. these things stay with me still. old habits...make a hell of a mess to attend to. the situation as i see it from my position as the locus of his actions is this. he did these things because he could. the milieu that compelled him to act is complex, but the point of transfer from his situation to mine is that of authority. power as an older and wiser person, as a caretaker, as an adult. my acceptance of his authority was not an issue. i was not in a position to say no and be heard. those who choose to have sexual relationships with children must understand that, from a child's point of view, age and experience, and even sheer physical strength, probably give an adult some modicum of authority. "an unrepentant pedophile" acknowledges this situation in a parent-child relationship. does he, do other pedophiles see that situation in other adult-child relationships? (an aside: i cringe at the label, the idea, of pedophile, since it implies a fetish and an objectification of children.) i would call for this situation: that children, who tend to trust more readily than time-tempered grown-ups, would not have that trust breached. that adults would not capriciously or profitably wield their power, much less abuse it, in sexual (or any) rela- tionships with children. that children are embraced and accepted, by those who would have sex with them, as more than objects of sexual desire. that children would be respected and treated as the complicated, vulnerable, multi-dimensional humans they are. =20 kls, los angeles Just hopelessness A, How are you all? I'd been wanting to write for awhile but have been plagued with some of the very things described in "Amnesia" [see Anarchy #35, p.5], though forgetting isn't at all my problem, just hopelessness. Some of this came from seeing the insur- rectionary fever of last spring subside into bizness as usual and even more galling, hip bizness, so much of it, also friends falling into drug addictions from heroin to vodka to pot and social de- generation and psychopathy on the rise. Plus ozone hole 15% bigger in '91, more trees gone, 5 bay area toxic gas releases, etc., etc. Let's have a protest? Doesn't seem to cut it plus it'll just be the same old faces, some of them anarchists who are pretty unanarchistic. And the project dwellers across the street, those with really no future are doing donuts in their hotrods till 3AM, testing their weapons, 2 shot dead in the week before I left. So let's just get high and fuck. But my lungs are scorched and my heart dead. Something's wrong with my back and it takes me 3 weeks to get rid of a cold. No, amnesia doesn't get me, collapse does. Never mind, I'll try to put a positive spin on things. There's a burgeoning squatting movement that's taken off in S.F. as well as Santa Cruz & San Jose. In S.F. they have several buildings occupied by homeless people with AIDS and anti-renters. In early December a sniper at the Army St. Projects across the street from me tagged a cop but wasn't caught. Epicenter has a switchboard for info, free food, medix, shelter & events. Tues.-Sunday 12-6PM @ (415) 431- 4600. Down in Long Beach there was an anarchist get together that was pretty interesting. Over here in Providence Newspeak exists next to a free artspace performance place called AS220 in downtown. Newspeak is now providing both a space and info materials, books, zines, videos & cassettes that didn't exist before. A local activist group, Anarchist Revolutionary Movement, existed but then split up over the use of arms vs. changing the name to @ Cooperative Movement. And anti-Japanese graffiti that I altered into anti-nationalist, capitalist messages still stands on the overpass of a very busy street from 2 years + ago! So life is just popping along. As a letter in the last EF! paper said, "expectation of things going perfectly, and disillusionment when they don't is a product of a TV culture used to watching conflict introduction, resolution in 30 minute sitcoms...." I myself used to watch alot. [...] =20 Love, =20 P.K., San Francisco, CA. The genuine article Dear Jason and Toni, I haven't finished reading @ #35 yet, but so far I like it a lot. The articles and comments by Churchill, Zerzan, Jaimes, Fea- therstone, Sonnenschein and others in the past three issues have helped greatly in my quest to better understand myself and this crazy world. I was also thrilled to see my letter in there. I greatly appreciate this forum for open discussion of a topic which is usually either hidden from view or exploited for profit. The discussion seems to have become a little more inclusive of rational thought, but among the many comments on child-adult sex in the last two issues, several evidenced profound misconceptions, to which I feel compelled to respond. Rather than speak to each letter one at a time, I'll try to address the issues in a little essay: I am the genuine article, sexually attracted to boys (and occa- sionally girls), usually aged 12-15. Not a pedophile, nor strictly an ephebophile, I am a `boy-lover', though I don't necessarily `love' someone just because looking at them makes my dick jump up and shout. Why am I attracted to boys and not women? I don't know. I don't hate or fear women, and I'm not `sick', beyond the fact that I read stuff like @, and sometimes even like it. I have been tested with a 567 question MMPI "personality inventory" and, perhaps to my discredit, showed no `abnormalities'. I am certainly not `warped' in the sense of having less regard than most people for the happiness and health of others. I care very much how my boyfriend feels. For me, `sex' is decidedly less pleasant with someone who isn't turned on, and it's pretty much impossible with someone who's unhappy. I am definitely not into domination. Contrary to the rantings of those women and men who've been rendered sexphobic by male sponsored pro-marriage propaganda, there is a big difference between a desire to participate in a `sexual' activity with someone and a desire to boss them around, with the latter forming a much smaller part of my makeup than that of most Amerikkkans. I am also not an "every person for him/herself" type anarchist. I agree with W.B. & x.m., that human behavior should be considered in a social context. But meaningful discussions of "social power= " must take account of actual human behavior. It is true that our society has almost no respect for the happiness of children. But no one is more aware of this than people who find children sexually attractive. It is natural, at least for perverts anyway, to prefer happy friends to sad ones. Despite how children are treated in our society, the lip service we give to the importance of gratifying the desires of adults allows children to readily conceive of hap- piness. They know from birth what they like and what they don't like, and as bad as our society is, only in the most extreme cases does it actually succeed in taking this knowledge away, not even from children whose parents are so bad that they are afraid of adults. Thus, all it takes to shatter the existing power structure is to simply ask your friend what makes them feel good, and listen to what they say. If you don't give them a lot of shit about it, they will generally let you know in no uncertain terms. Any law enforcement manual will tell you, this is exactly how most `moles- ters' win the trust of their `victims' (admittedly, there are some `molesters' who are also shitheads and treat kids as bad as any school principle, but even the police will usually acknowledge that these are in the minority). According to these manuals, the way they keep kids coming back to their houses again and again is the same: by `befriending' them - paying attention to what they say, and letting them do what they feel like doing, simultaneously giving the kid a sense of personal value and autonomy that most `loving' parents would consider subversive of their authority. Hence, much child-adult sex, from the child's point of view, takes place within the framework of sexual exploration with a friend/doing a friend a favor, or in many cases, simply having fun and getting off together, in flagrant violation of the commandments of authority figures. Hell, you'd think these perverts and the= ir friends were some kind of (i.e. social) anarchists or something. huh!? (Incidentally, did you ever wonder what a "sex ring" is? A "sex ring" - no joke - is when two or more of these `molesters' know each other.) A `social' issue I'll address some other time is the relatively large difference between the socialization of boys and that of women, which allows most boys to enjoy experiences which often make patriarchally programmed (to be `appropriately' sexphobic) women feel guilty and ashamed. I agree with M.K. that it can be useful to know the causes and effects of our actions, and those of others as well, assuming that these relationships can be clearly established. I do not know what causes my attraction to boys. I have read many pages of unscientific speculation by `experts' on the subject, and not found anything resembling me in them. The most thorough, sound scientific investigation I have seen, by Paul Okami in a recent issue of Th= e Journal of Sex Research, found that `pedophiles' have absolutely nothing in common except their `pedophilia', and I might add, their humanity, which is frequently overlooked. I have identified a number of `causative factors' for the op- pressive, sexphobic behavior of others which I have endured every day of my life, for 16 years as a `boy', and since I was 12, as a `boy-lover'. Basically, they boil down to (surprise, surprise) European/Christian-style patriarchy and the economic systems which have allowed it to flourish. This ideology has consistently demanded that women, girls, and more recently boys, be chaste outside of marriage. The (at first, male generated, still mostly male sponsored) propaganda campaigns necessary to perpetuate this arrangement have left many American women deathly afraid of sex, and most men afraid of homosexuality. In pre-Christian Greece, man/boy sex and love flourished alongside patriarchy, as it has and does in many societies (not that I endorse this arrangement). However, since the embracement of Christianity by Rome in the 300s, when homophobic and sexphobic passages were added to, and references to boy-loving behavior by Christ were deleted from the Bible, `boy-lovers' have been consistently subjected not only to criminalization, but also to some of the most viciously biased, grossly inaccurate, and heavily censored coverage in the `Western' media of any identifiable category of people. (Indeed, extermination of the cultures and peoples of the "fourth world" have often been partially rationalized by accurate reports of their acceptance of sexually expressed man/boy love.) In recent times, sexphobic anti-porn `feminists' have teamed up with certain fascists and religious leaders, to try to "straighten things out," by making men equally sexphobic. They have revived the Church's definition of sex as sin, by portraying it as a form of violence. It would take several pages just to touch on all the kinds of misery caused by their highly profitable campaigns; the degree of this misery, for young and old alike, cannot be described in words. As for the effects on children of having sex with adults...well, that's what I sat down to write about. I care very much abou= t this subject,and have spent a lot of time researching it. However, since this introduction has run so long, I will have to save the main body of the essay for next letter. For now, suffice it to say that, despite a prodigious effort by victimologists to justify their existence "by any means necessary," there is no evidence that the behavior described above is harmful to anyone. =20 Thanks, Peace, and Love, =20 D.M., San Francisco, CA. Pedophile relations As a British bisexual pedophile I would like to add my own two cents worth to the ongoing transgenerational debate. As `unrepentant' intimates (p.79 et seg: Fall '92), for troubled children the best thing that could happen to them is to come into contact with a genuine pedophile. The notorious one-eyed pedophobe Vachs suggests that pedophiles deliberately target vulnerable kids as prey. He misreads the dynamic of pedophile relations. It is because we love children that we can easily spot children who are disturbed, distraught, unhappy, etc. If we interject ourselves into these children's lives it is with the noblest of intentions: to help them, succour them, cherish them, value them, love them. Since when has love been a sin? It would be disingenuous of me to pretend that all pedophiles are thus saintlike. We are human beings. Some pedophiles behave badly. However, so do many `normal' adult-oriented heterosexuals and homosexuals. Overall, I suspect, pedophiles have a higher ethical standard than the `norms' whose vociferous criticism resounds worldwide. It is worth pointing out that much child abuse is perpetrated by men who are not genuine pedophiles. These villains abuse children as a displacement activity. Intra-familial abuse is a paradigmatic example of this. Shaun Perry makes a most telling point when he avers that the power-node in intergenerational relationships is often skewed in the child's favour (p.32, Winter '90-91). Even (or especially) in the fraught circumstances of an attempted `pick-up' I still find that for all my vaunted rhetoric vis-=85-v= is child-love I can be reduced within seconds to a shaking, palpitating wreck. Objectively I can see the farce and pathos of the situation. I am a macho male, strong, athletic, powerfully built but I tremble with fear when I want to approach a child, overwhelmed by his or her beauty, desperate to avoid frightening him or her. Needless to say, in this confused and anxious state I usually slink away with my tail in between my legs, abject and frustrated. I confess that I am unusually neurotic but I do not think my emotions are atypical. The image of the predatory pedophile belies a more complex reality in which a pedophile has to steel himself and pluck up courage to fulfil his desire. I hasten to add that this desire is not just genital lust (tho' that is part of it and I am not ashamed of my sexual desire) -=20 but a multi-faceted, multi-hued compendium of affective desire. I have had friendships with children where there has been no sex play at all. For me these have still been pedophile relationships. I note that the prison system gets mentioned quite a lot in Anarchy. Having had the dubious honor of serving two sentences in English jails I have a less romantic conception of prison life than some idealistic readers. Obviously I write from the stance of a sex offender. If one is being beaten, punched, kicked and scalded with boiling water by other prisoners because of the nature of one's offence (loving a child, shock, horror) then it is difficult to feel much solidarity with them as fellow warriors in the class war. It strikes me as somewhat incongruous for `normal' prisoners to adopt this hifalutin', holier-than-thou `morality'. Their own codes of conduct in the outside world are not exactly beyond reproach. But back to the excitement of pedophilia. My nightmare is of being forced to undergo `treatment'. Pedophilia is such an integral part of my being that I am sure my personality would disintegrate if some mind-meddling buffoon sought to `cure' me. I do recognize that it is an aberrant orientation but it's more and it's all I've got. I don't know that it is particularly productive to ponder overlong on the aetiology of paedophilia. Different strokes for different folks is my motto. In any study cohort of paedophiles you will find varying life histories, disparate experiences. Simplistic explanations are not worth bothering with tho' T. from Baltimore would presumably disagree (p.79, Fall '92). I hate to say this Mr. T. (the Mr. T.?) but your views are baloney and balderdash. A "desire to rape" is not prevalent amidst paedophiles. The simmering aggression of heterosexual `norms' probably represents this scenario. Forced sex is not the most prevalent manifestation of child-adult sex in the real world. That is Mr. T.'s fantasy. I am sorry that Mr. T. has experienced misfortune in his life - haven't we all! - but he is plain wrong wrong wrong when he makes his wild, emotive extrapolations. On a lighter note, after Madonna's famous revelatory film, I hear that Macaulay Culkin is about to embark on his own risque opus: In Bed with Mac. With all the money he's got he could make a paedophile very happy in every sense of the word. Speaking personally, as a pauper, I would gladly enter into an unequal and oppressive relationship with 11 year old Mr. Culkin whose winsome charm bowls me over. He could take me out for treats on the town in his limousine! I would prostrate myself before him. In response to Mr. T.'s question - why are children desirable: that is the $64,000 question. If I may borrow Mr. T.'s term `trite' - it is trite to say that it is `insecurity' that impels ped desire. Lots of people are insecure but only some of us worship at the shrine of childhood. It's name check time: Lewis Carroll, T.H. White, J.M. Barrie, Benjamin Britten, Oscar Wilde. Illustrious role models to inspire we peds: not by any stretch of the imagination the psychopathic monsters conjured up by pedophobes. Please excuse disjointed dicta. Alas, I don't have access to a word processor. Writing with a pen is so wearisome. =20 M.M., London, England In the dark Dear Anarchy, I just got finished reading my first copy of your insightful zine. (Yes, cover to cover.) I had to write. The copy I received was issue #34, Fall '92. I had ordered it through Utne Reader's sample page, sent to me via an outside source. You see, I am one of Massachusetts' innumerable prisoners, searching for an ideal amidst the oppression. I was sentenced in May of '91 in Salem, Mass. for being a fag. (No, really, a member of my jury stated emphatically in post trial documents, as well as verbal testimony, that he found me guilty on his assumption that I was a homo-sexual and not on any evidence given.) Well, he was right, I am a homo-sexual, and now I'm here. The judge in my case (as you might expect), seemed to think I was getting a square deal and thus negated this revelation as insignificant enough to be not worthy of his considerations for a new trial. I suppose I really hadn't expected anything less, after all! he is a judge and I'm but a lowly fag. Alas, this is not my reason for writing. I am writing because for the first time in months (18 in total) I am able to walk through the prison yard feeling as though I am not alone. I began thinking about anarchist issues when I was around eight. At which time, there were two fairly significant events that acted as catalysts to my embodiment of these ideas. The first event was my viewing of a film entitled "A Man Called Horse." At the young and tender age of eight I was so turned on by watching the Indians (the heroes of the film) drag their white captive through the prairie, I tried to re-enact the whole scene by myself, alone and naked in the bathroom. The second event occurred about a year later. The year was 1970. Following the lead of Steinem and her crew of social morons, myself and my friend Earl decided it was time that kids were as deserving of equal rights as were women. We staged a two man picket in front of our elementary school with the intention of demanding fair and equal treatment. We wanted to be included in all decisions that ultimately affected our young lives. Needless to say, we were all but ignored. We both took our cause to a more primordial source of oppression, our parents. Being ridiculed and scorned there, we decided on a more confrontational course of action; we set a hillside by our homes ablaze. Had we been found out, our fight might have ended right there. But we weren't found out; instead, we both began lives living on the fringe, understanding right from wrong and understanding that adults usually had no idea which was which. It's been twenty-two years since that fire, twenty-two years of expressing ideas which usually culminated in isolation, scorn and ridicule. I didn't know then what to call myself, and to be perfectly honest, until I discovered your magazine, I still didn't know what label the mainstream had affixed to my political agenda. (Pretty naive, huh?) I know now. My first brush with familiarizing myself with Anarchy as a philosophical (or as the case may be anti-philosophical) principle was when I was sixteen. Sitting in the bedroom of one of my more bourgeois friends (All turned out slaves to the working class), I was treated to a pre-stereophonic Sex Pistols, "Never Mind the Bollocks." I was blown away. The years between then and now have provided me a more eclectic view of my surroundings. I doubt very much there is a single stone left unturned. I had kids, had jobs, had religion, had headaches, had more religion and finally had enough. I am now 31. Reading your zine, I suddenly realize what a child I've become. I mean, all the arguments are the same; I don't think there was a single article, letter or column that didn't hit home. I came to all of these same conclusions on my own. I feel like I did when I was coming out of the closet. Wow! I could never have imagined that there were so many others whose thoughts were similar to my own. In the last ten years or so I have been hidden away in an existential underworld of Nietzsche, Dostoevsky and Sartre. Other than the periodic influence of Marx, Dante and Tolstoy for balance I have been in the dark. Thus I write to you now for help. Being a prisoner, my access to extremist literature is limited at best. I hunger to learn more about what is really going on and what is being done to stop the bullshit. I am impoverished of new freethinking ideas and concepts. I want to know more. I am interested, as a writer in starting my own newsletter from behind the wall. I would like any advice either your organization or your readers can offer. I would further like to receive any periodicals or zines that are available to the imprisoned without cost. I am interested in all extremist, intellectual or Anarchy issues and would be extremely grateful for any contributions to my further development. (P.S. I am also interested in Punk literature.) As I am serving a six to ten year sentence based solely on my particular preference I have no qualms about signing my name. If you ask me, Anarchy is not extreme it's logical. Industrial America; now that's extreme.... =20 Sincerely, =20 Christian Delp W50661 =20 POB 466 =20 Gardner, MA. 01440 B.A.D. picnic On August 1, the Boston Anarchist Drinking Brigade converged on the edge of the Miles Standish State Park (Plymouth MA) and threw a clambake. The site was idyllic, thirty acres of forest on which rested a hundred year old cottage overlooking an enticing pond. Against this backdrop the only things needed to make this a perfect occasion were food, drink and friends and we brought those! The main course was a true new england tradition; a clambake. A wood fire was started in small earthen pit. Covering the pit was a grill upon which was placed a trash can filled with water. Once the water in the trash can was brought to a boil sacks of potatoes, onions, corn on the cob, sweet potatoes and clams were thrown in and allowed to cook together for an hour. The result was magnifi- cent, especially when slathered in butter. Accompanying this fine feast were generous portions of homemade cole slaw, chicken satay, salads, hot dogs, tofu dogs, hamburgers, tofu burgers and chips, dips and tonic (soda pop). This abundance and variety was washed down by liberal quantities of either beer or Rhode Island Red Wine and Ting Punch. The punch was the creation of Joan, proprietor of the bookstore NEWSPEAK (43 Richmond St. Providence, RI. 02903; 401-331-3540). She came along with her partner Frank and the folks from the Anarchist Revolution Movement. The Anarchist Youth Federation from Newton were well represented and from the Love & Rage network, there were Phil and Liz. Two of the original founding members of the brigade, Peter and Becky along with their daughter Tesla were also present. Peter is the author of the essay, "The Politics of Identity and Difference," which appeared in Against Separatism. The rest of those attending were new england anarchists and their friends. The total attendance was around forty-five individuals, ranging in age from two to forty-seven. The perfect accompaniment to fine food and drink is good conversation and with anarchists, well let's just say they are natural talkers. Many people took the opportunity to swim in the pond or use the canoe for relaxation. Whatever else people might have done,it was an excellent opportunity for old acquaintances to meet and renew friendships and for new friendships to be started. The Boston Anarchist Drinking Brigade would like to extend it's appreciation to all those who helped make this such enjoyable and successful occasion. =20 B.S.A., Central Islip, NY. PS: Plans are underway for another one this summer, date and site still to be decided. If you would like to be notified of when and where, send your name and address to: BAD Brigade, PO Box 1323, Cambridge, MA. 02238. Routine misrepresentations After finding a letter from B. McCormick in my mailbox a couple of years ago, offering to desist from attacking my writings if I would cease to criticize "deep ecology" in return, I decided I would no longer respond to his routine misrepresentations of my views. I do not make deals in matters of principle. Readers may want to ask themselves whether, when I cite Karl Marx,I regard him as the `be-all' and `end-all' of social theory. Or whether I oppose ecotechnologies. Or whether I want to burn wiccans at the stake. Or whether I view all of the ecomystical critics of my ideas as virtual or actual Nazis. Or whether I hate feminists and women generally. Or whether I foam at the mouth, rant, rave, and gush - while, needless to emphasize, all my criticisms of "deep ecology" are seen as nothing but personal attacks. Or whether I would let biotechnology run riot in the world. Or whether every utopistic vision I hold is completely congruent with the present - whose potentialities for a future anarcho-communist society I critically explore. [See the letter from Bill McCormick in Anarchy #35, pp.72-4.] This sort of stuff will probably go on as long as I am alive and possibly well after I'm dead. A great deal of ecological and anarchist history is being rewritten today - that is, where it is not simply being forgotten, as one generation replaces another. If Anarchy readers agree in appreciable numbers that the gothic views and approaches I've cited above can be found in my writings, then I have been wasting my time developing an ecoanarchist outlook over the past thirty years. Unfortunately my age and illnesses now oblige me to give priority to my own unfinished projects. Hence I must respectfully trust to the intelligence of my readers to decide what I really think when such demagogic misrepresentations of my work are published. =20 Murray Bookchin =20 Burlington, VT. Leaving to drift Thanks to everyone who makes Anarchy! Whatever radicalism, whatever lucidity I have attained the last few years, this journal has had a lot to do with it. [...] Soon I will be leaving Olympia to `drift' for a couple months or so. No solid destination is set but I would like to meet, visit and maybe wander with anarchists in North America and maybe down south. Wherever you are correspondence is welcome from readers of Anarchy and a visit is not unlikely. About the essay this letter is on the back of, you are welcome to print it or part of it, although I don't expect you will. It's pretty long (14 pages). And much of it is a "ravaging for parts" in situationist theory which you might find tiresome. Please respond if you feel like it. Just in case you don't, for anyone interested it's mainly a discussion of the recuperation of '60s counterculture and its effects. It seems to me that the "psychedelic moveme= nt" and counterculture spiritually filled the void where situationist lucidity was lacking here in the U.S. Furthermore, these and other elements of the counterculture like rock-n-roll have spurred a revolution in American capitalism's mode of social reproduction, especially in its effectiveness of recuperation and consumer manipulation. A copy will gladly be sent to anyone who gives me a SASE or something to trade. By the way, what ever happened to the idea of a "post-situationist revolutionary tendency"? You changed the heading on that address list just as I as starting to think it was a great idea! Let me guess: you figured that opening the "Anarchist Contacts" list to a more broad conception of "anarchist practice of one form or another" would get a better response. (If so, you seem to have been right). The list has grown more interesting the last couple issues. The mood seems to be that before more people simply get to know each other, until a wider network of face to face contagious joy emerges, defining a particular revolutionary tendency that could match the SI in coherence and sophistication is absurd. Hakim Bey's "Communiques of the Association for Ontological Anarchy" in the popular book TAZ, can be read as a joke on the whole idea of a `post-situationist' organization, announcing purges in the chaos movement, etc. That sense of humor about the language of organization is much appreciated (by myself included) because it points to the very problematic challenge of any revolutionary organization or movement that seeks to be prefigurative and liberatory in itself. Still, there is a lot that can be learned from the sits. And I look forward to a revolutionary practice of creating situations and a lucidity that matches that of the SI and goes beyond. [...] =20 Unru Lee =20 POB 10096 =20 Olympia, WA. 98502 PS: The last few Anarchys have been especially excellent! Delicious anecdotes Dear Jason McQuinn, I've just been savoring that wonderful article in the winter issue of Anarchy by Manolo Gonzalez. Where in the world did you find such a treasure chest of delicious anecdotes? I've been a Spanish war buff for a few years now, with particular emphasis on the anarchists, and I'm just stunned by the fact that I've never heard of him. It shows you how much I know. You must be teasing us when you fail to tell us anything about Manolo Gonzalez, or whether you've translated the article from Spanish or Catalan, or what Gonzalez has done with his long life, or where he lives. If he lives in the eastern United States, I'd like to meet him. Just imagine! This family friend of Buenaventura Durruti, who attended the Escuela Moderna, who participated in the infamous May Days, and who's about to give us fresh new testimony on the suppression of the POUM militia as well as commentary on Orwell's assessment of the war, this invaluable witness to all those events that the world wants to understand, has waited until the very autumn of his existence to finally spill the beans! I say "Hats Off, Anarchy magazine," for discovering Manolo. =20 Yours Faithfully, =20 B.H., Philadelphia, PA. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Anarchist Contacts This is a listing of addresses of groups and individuals who would like to see the growth and development of anarchist practice of one form or another. The list may help those participating to make re- gional contacts and intercommunication links based on their self- defined perspectives. If you'd like to see your address added to this listing just write to us and we'll include your name, address, and a short (20 words or less) description of your perspective, practice and/or desires. Each contact address will be run in two successive issues. (Note: We are only compiling this list, we are not endorsing the positions of those who have asked to be listed.) Institute of Fatuous Research BM JED London, WC1N 3XX England Daniel May #165482 MECC 1-B-4 18701 Old HWY. 66 Pacific, MO. 63069 "25 yr. old professional male seeking correspondence with anyone interested in pedophilia, children's rights and sexuality." John Cline #71101 ASPC-Perryville POB 3300 Goodyear, AZ. 85338 "I'd like to correspond with anarchist poets, lyricists and artists to trade off our labors of love and wit." Unru Lee POB 10096 Olympia, WA. 98502 "Dreaming of regional communitarian networks ...hundreds creating alternatives to work, rent, education/science; also companions for cross-country and wilderness adventure." Conspiracy M.E.D.I.A. POB 158324 Nashville, TN. 37215 Publishers of Radical Pizza zine, R.A.D! music zine, and anarchist- oriented computer bulletin board Mondo Gordo! BBS. Ben Brucato 990 Thomas Dr. Ashland, OH. 44805 "Anarchic/agnostic musician, poet, artist, and writer. Strongly anti-racist, anti-superiority and anti-`pecking-order'." Psychoriot Sound c/o Count Zee POB 752 Crocker, MO. 65452 "Composer/axeman/music softwear programmer looking for any creative outlet for video, live or other projects. Relocating to Alabama. Advice?" Brian Metz POB 70551 Richmond, VA. 23255 "I wish to build correspondences with anyone sincerely interested in progression toward a shark-and-pig-free world." Dale R. Gowin #91-B-0209 POB 500 Elmira, NY. 14902 "Anarchist activist and `drug-war' POW seeks correspondence re: counter-cultural movements and conscious social-revolutionary use of psychedelic sacraments." Joanne Bender 23 Linlake Dr. St. Catherines, Ontario L2N 2M5 Canada "Would like to correspond/share info & ideas with other anarchists/radical environmentalists/ people interested/involved with ALF." Thornton Kimes 605=AB S. Main #2 Seattle, WA. 98104 "Bi anarchadude seeks (bi) pen friends, friends to hang out with and give/receive massages to/from, cuddlebuddies and/or a bianarchist household..."