Anarchist Magazine Issue 5, Autumn 1988
Elephant Editions
A perspective based on the need to completely destroy technology is confusing to many comrades, and a considerable number of them refuse to accept it. They find it more reasonable and realistic to consider only the problem of destroying so-called hard technology(all kinds of nuclear armaments, asbestos, etc.) They consider soft technology(electronics, information technology, etc.) socially useful and think they will be able to make good use of it in the future, as though the latter could be detached from the logic of domination that produced and developed it.
In this way comrades are demonstrating an "enlightened" positivist attitude to science. They claim the instruments produced by technological and scientific knowledge as neutral, and only criticise the bad social use that Power puts them to.
We think on the contrary, that the instruments created by Power cannot fail to obey the logic that created them. They are totally functional to its aims no matter who uses them and in spite of any apparent advantages they might bring to society.
(from the article "against technology")
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Thursday, April 17, 2008
Insurrection #4
Anarchist Magazine Issue 4 May 1988
Elephant Editions
With this issue of Insurrection we are adressing ourselves to anarchists and all those who feel themselves to be in a situation of antagonism against the dominion of the State and capital. We also adress ourselves to those who are disheartened and perhaps even disgusted by the absorption of certain structures that once held high banners and hopes within the workers movement. We adress ourselves to those who have begun to see the charade of pacifism as futile in the attempt to move the nuclear industry(both civil and military) an inch. We adress ourselves who see that science is no longer neutral - if it ever was- and to those who see that the struggle against the vile experimentation on animals in all fields cannot be fought as a single issue struggle but must be brought into the global project of the capitalist enterprise. We adress ourselves to those who see that the feminist movement while bringing women's issues into the open, cannot alone bring women to be free beings. We adress ourselves to those who see that although the colour of their skin is the moset immediate cause of their oppression, to fight back on that level alone merely leads to a more refined form of exploitation. To those who see that even if their colonial exploiters are chased away they will still a local bourgeoisie to contend with. To those who see that moral indignation is not enough. That simply adhering to a movement in name and having no concrete project is not enough. We adress ourselves to those who want to take the risk of throwing old schema out of the window and look for a new road. An informal, flexible road. One which requires the constant engagement of comrades in a dimension of permanent conflictuality, not sporadic movements, spectacular displays of numerical strength. To those for whom reform is nothing but a support to capital. To those who are not afraid to speak of revolution without a cynical smile on their lips. For those who want everything now and are prepared to make sure they get it, realising that this can only be done through the development of both a specific anarchist movement organised informally, and the relationship of that movement with mass organisms which give themselves intermediate aims in an insurrectional logic. We adress ourselves to those therefore who realise that this road is one that we must work to create, eexperimenting together. What we are offering here is one instrument in that project. Not abstract theory but an attempt to go foreward and develop means that are adequate to the present day in the struggle towards a free society. Much of the analytical and theoretical contributions are the fruit of involvement in the struggle elsewhere in recent years, also by some of the Insurrection comrades ourselves. It is therefore also an attempt to break down some of the geographical and linguistic barriers that are an obstacle preventing a full development of the struggle.
(Introduction)
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Elephant Editions
With this issue of Insurrection we are adressing ourselves to anarchists and all those who feel themselves to be in a situation of antagonism against the dominion of the State and capital. We also adress ourselves to those who are disheartened and perhaps even disgusted by the absorption of certain structures that once held high banners and hopes within the workers movement. We adress ourselves to those who have begun to see the charade of pacifism as futile in the attempt to move the nuclear industry(both civil and military) an inch. We adress ourselves who see that science is no longer neutral - if it ever was- and to those who see that the struggle against the vile experimentation on animals in all fields cannot be fought as a single issue struggle but must be brought into the global project of the capitalist enterprise. We adress ourselves to those who see that the feminist movement while bringing women's issues into the open, cannot alone bring women to be free beings. We adress ourselves to those who see that although the colour of their skin is the moset immediate cause of their oppression, to fight back on that level alone merely leads to a more refined form of exploitation. To those who see that even if their colonial exploiters are chased away they will still a local bourgeoisie to contend with. To those who see that moral indignation is not enough. That simply adhering to a movement in name and having no concrete project is not enough. We adress ourselves to those who want to take the risk of throwing old schema out of the window and look for a new road. An informal, flexible road. One which requires the constant engagement of comrades in a dimension of permanent conflictuality, not sporadic movements, spectacular displays of numerical strength. To those for whom reform is nothing but a support to capital. To those who are not afraid to speak of revolution without a cynical smile on their lips. For those who want everything now and are prepared to make sure they get it, realising that this can only be done through the development of both a specific anarchist movement organised informally, and the relationship of that movement with mass organisms which give themselves intermediate aims in an insurrectional logic. We adress ourselves to those therefore who realise that this road is one that we must work to create, eexperimenting together. What we are offering here is one instrument in that project. Not abstract theory but an attempt to go foreward and develop means that are adequate to the present day in the struggle towards a free society. Much of the analytical and theoretical contributions are the fruit of involvement in the struggle elsewhere in recent years, also by some of the Insurrection comrades ourselves. It is therefore also an attempt to break down some of the geographical and linguistic barriers that are an obstacle preventing a full development of the struggle.
(Introduction)
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Insurrection #3
Issue 3, 1985
Elephant Editions
THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES...that of the miners, the unemployed, the low paid workers, immigrant workers, proletarian women, young people...the groups and sub-groups are endless in the great mass of the exploited of advanced capital. The urban ghettoes kindle, there is ferment in the schools. Anger is mounting among the services workers pushed out of their jobs or devalued by privatisation. Shipyard workers, workers in the car industry, skilled and unskilled workers in all the heavy and light industries are finding themselves thrown like rejects on to the scrap heaps of poverty and depression. Meanwhile the rich get richer. And to keep this wealth they are building more and more bunkers, bullet proof cars, training armies, special corps for crowd control, building new prisons, formulating new laws, tightening border controls, perfectioning social control. The obvious place to turn in this situation is the official workers' movement. This however has miserably failed in its historic task. There can no longer be any doubt. The unions need the space to survive and grow that only capital will provide for them. Even the seemingly combative ones have no intention or desire to destroy a system which is happy to delegate to them the role of bargaining over the cost of the restructuring process in course. Their role is indispensable, and is worth the price of policing picket line battles when workers are no longer prepared to accept the results of the conference table.
The only losers are those who fought and gave all-and lost all. What good is the credit balance of 'self-respect' if all it serves to do is to palliate another twenty years down the mines or a life on the dole.
The struggle continues, in spite of the unions. In spite of the parties and hangers on. In spite of the anarchists so long as we remain tied to the illusions that our movement has fostered for so long now.
What to do? Wait for the next confrontation to appear? Improvise next time, become insurrectionalists, abstentionists for the day, anti-militarists or whatever else the occasion demands of us?
Or is it time to work out-and make known in clear terms-what anarchists really are. What we really want: to subvert the present order and be protagonists in the struggle for the new. This is not an abstract concept, a maximalisation to delay the moment of action. Of our final subversive, destructive, aim is forgotten for a moment, allowing ourselves to be fascinated by the pull of activism without clear thought and profound analysis, we can often end up flanking the very counter-revolution we believe we are fighting.
We need organisational proposals that become a clear point of reference beyond the institutionalised haggling of capitalist forces. These proposals must be concrete and we must be present to participate in bringing them about. It is time to come out from our ideological bunkers and confront each other not so much on the immediate and pressing tactical choices for the next demo, but to analyse the reality in which we are trying to work. It is time to come out.
(from the introduction)
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Elephant Editions
THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES...that of the miners, the unemployed, the low paid workers, immigrant workers, proletarian women, young people...the groups and sub-groups are endless in the great mass of the exploited of advanced capital. The urban ghettoes kindle, there is ferment in the schools. Anger is mounting among the services workers pushed out of their jobs or devalued by privatisation. Shipyard workers, workers in the car industry, skilled and unskilled workers in all the heavy and light industries are finding themselves thrown like rejects on to the scrap heaps of poverty and depression. Meanwhile the rich get richer. And to keep this wealth they are building more and more bunkers, bullet proof cars, training armies, special corps for crowd control, building new prisons, formulating new laws, tightening border controls, perfectioning social control. The obvious place to turn in this situation is the official workers' movement. This however has miserably failed in its historic task. There can no longer be any doubt. The unions need the space to survive and grow that only capital will provide for them. Even the seemingly combative ones have no intention or desire to destroy a system which is happy to delegate to them the role of bargaining over the cost of the restructuring process in course. Their role is indispensable, and is worth the price of policing picket line battles when workers are no longer prepared to accept the results of the conference table.
The only losers are those who fought and gave all-and lost all. What good is the credit balance of 'self-respect' if all it serves to do is to palliate another twenty years down the mines or a life on the dole.
The struggle continues, in spite of the unions. In spite of the parties and hangers on. In spite of the anarchists so long as we remain tied to the illusions that our movement has fostered for so long now.
What to do? Wait for the next confrontation to appear? Improvise next time, become insurrectionalists, abstentionists for the day, anti-militarists or whatever else the occasion demands of us?
Or is it time to work out-and make known in clear terms-what anarchists really are. What we really want: to subvert the present order and be protagonists in the struggle for the new. This is not an abstract concept, a maximalisation to delay the moment of action. Of our final subversive, destructive, aim is forgotten for a moment, allowing ourselves to be fascinated by the pull of activism without clear thought and profound analysis, we can often end up flanking the very counter-revolution we believe we are fighting.
We need organisational proposals that become a clear point of reference beyond the institutionalised haggling of capitalist forces. These proposals must be concrete and we must be present to participate in bringing them about. It is time to come out from our ideological bunkers and confront each other not so much on the immediate and pressing tactical choices for the next demo, but to analyse the reality in which we are trying to work. It is time to come out.
(from the introduction)
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Insurrection #2
Issue 2, 1984
B.M. Elephant London
We must force ourselves to see things as they are, not how we would like them to be. Our innate love for utopia - of great nobility and sentimentality - must take second place in the face of the need for analyses based on reality. To do this, or even to simply understand it when it is done by other comrades, we must provide ourselves with some basic instruments. we might as well limit ourselves to pub talk if we don't possess some basic awareness (and perhaps a bit more than that) of economics. The point blank refusal to widen our study of certain instruments such as economics, history, philosophy, State administration, public finance, etc. is based on a mistaken interpretation of the anarchist concept of destruction.
(taken from the article Strategy & Methods)
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B.M. Elephant London
We must force ourselves to see things as they are, not how we would like them to be. Our innate love for utopia - of great nobility and sentimentality - must take second place in the face of the need for analyses based on reality. To do this, or even to simply understand it when it is done by other comrades, we must provide ourselves with some basic instruments. we might as well limit ourselves to pub talk if we don't possess some basic awareness (and perhaps a bit more than that) of economics. The point blank refusal to widen our study of certain instruments such as economics, history, philosophy, State administration, public finance, etc. is based on a mistaken interpretation of the anarchist concept of destruction.
(taken from the article Strategy & Methods)
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Insurrection #1
Bi-monthly anarchist review 1st issue December 1982
For we anarchists the revolution is our guide, our constant point of reference, no matter what we are doing or what problem we are concerned with. The anarchy we want will not be possible without the painful revolutionary break. If we want to avoid turning this into simply a dream we must struggle to destroy the State and exploiters through the revolution.
But this revolution is not a myth simply to be used as a point of reference. Precisely because it is a concrete event, it must be built daily through more modest attempts which do not have all the liberating characteristics of the social revolution in the true sense.These more modest attempts are insurrections. In them the uprising of the most exploited of the masses and the most politically sentisized minority, opens the way to the possible involvement of increasingly wider strata of exploited in a flux of rebellion which could lead to the revolution but could also end up in the establishment of a new power or a bloody confirmation of the old one. In the case of the latter, although the insurrection begins as a liberating uprising it concludes bitterly with the re-establishment of State and private dominion. That is the natural way of things. Insurrection is the indispensable element of the revolution without which, without a long and painful series of which, there will be no revolution and power will reign undisturbed in the fullness of its might. We are not to be discouraged. Once again, obtusely, we are preparing and struggling for the insurrection which will come about, a small part of the great future mosaic of the revolution.
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For we anarchists the revolution is our guide, our constant point of reference, no matter what we are doing or what problem we are concerned with. The anarchy we want will not be possible without the painful revolutionary break. If we want to avoid turning this into simply a dream we must struggle to destroy the State and exploiters through the revolution.
But this revolution is not a myth simply to be used as a point of reference. Precisely because it is a concrete event, it must be built daily through more modest attempts which do not have all the liberating characteristics of the social revolution in the true sense.These more modest attempts are insurrections. In them the uprising of the most exploited of the masses and the most politically sentisized minority, opens the way to the possible involvement of increasingly wider strata of exploited in a flux of rebellion which could lead to the revolution but could also end up in the establishment of a new power or a bloody confirmation of the old one. In the case of the latter, although the insurrection begins as a liberating uprising it concludes bitterly with the re-establishment of State and private dominion. That is the natural way of things. Insurrection is the indispensable element of the revolution without which, without a long and painful series of which, there will be no revolution and power will reign undisturbed in the fullness of its might. We are not to be discouraged. Once again, obtusely, we are preparing and struggling for the insurrection which will come about, a small part of the great future mosaic of the revolution.
Download PDF here
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