Haters Magazine

8 T T
SH R E
H R S
TE
the irredeemable
8
university
T
H8
seven reasons to hate

(election) season
on the poverty
of chicanx artists this is the definition
of class hatred
powerlines and the
suspension of time and more!
ISSUE 1 - FALL 2020
an anarchist journal from north texas

The cover image (shown above) is from a march
R. turned riot in downtown Dallas on July 18, 1973
following the police murder of 12 year-old Santos
I. Rodriguez. The event hospitalized five Dallas PD
officers. This pushed DPD to charge the police
P. officer with murder and reform its hiring policies
to reflect the city’s demographics. No amount of
Black or brown pigs, however, will erase the fact
that the police exist to maintain white supremacy.
Revolutionaries are often the most surprised at the outbreak of revolution. We

are not yet living in revolutionary times, but the current outbreak of Black-led
rebellion and insurrection is only the natural outcome of centuries’ domination. It
has been part of the fabric of this society since the first slave rebellion in 1526 on
the coast of what is known as Georgia. It is within this history in which we situate
the upheavals and from which we wish to support and eventually see the end of.
When starting this project, a couple months ago we felt frustrated with the polit-
Editor’s Note
ical landscape. Consisting of mostly liberal activists or self-righteous party mem-

bers, especially in DFW, it was bleak for us to say the least. To be quite honest, it
is still bleak, but the spread of COVID-19 and its mismanagement are making
the mask of the American dream slip away to reveal the decaying face of white
supremacy that it is founded upon, thus making new openings for its destruction.
We are not progressives, there is no nation to we are trying to improve. We are not
leftists, we do not seek to manage capital but to destroy it. We are Black, brown,
proletarian, and anarchistic.
With rebellion comes possibilities, anger, hatred, life but also repression, hope,
recuperation, death. We must be, we will be, prepared for both.
CONT
H8TERS is a project that
aims to introduce and
encourage.
To introduce a way of
thinking that arises from,
ENTS
but is not tied to, our
social positionings within
this world.
We believe that the

best introduction is to
immediately include
those interested
05 on the poverty of chicanx artists into contemporary
conversations and
07 the irredeemable university conundrums.
10 this is the definition of class hatred To that end, we

encourage those we
12 the most american president introduced to engage
with these works in a
16 seven reasons to hate the season social manner, to share
and discuss with those
28 anti-politcs and the police around them in whatever
manner they deem fit,
31 powerlines & the suspension of time: whether it’s a group chat,
reflections on temporal perceptions a reading group, or a late
night talk around the
35 to my people dinner table.
38 on the black leadership and other A revolution is a social

white myths event. Whatever comes
out of these groups and
40 sanitary crisis or crisis of civilization? conversations may, or
may not, help with the
46 reading suggestions revolution, but it will
help us feel slightly less
isolated.
Note: Underlined titles are works that
originally appeared in H8TERS May a thousand reading
groups bloom!
RIAH MILTON - DRAYA MCCARTY
TONY MCDADE - MERCI MACK
BRAYLA STONE - SHAKI PETERS
We want to take a moment to

mourn the loss of our Black
queer and trans siblings,
whether it is from anti-queer
violence, medical negligence,
or this antagonistic world. We
carry you in our hearts, we
mourn, we heal, and we fight
for you. We will destroy this
world that destroyed you.
MONIKA DIAMOND - BREE BLACK
TATIANA HALL - REM’MIE FELLS
OLUWATOYIN SALAU - NINA POP
...AND ALL THOSE WHOSE NAMES WE

UNFORTUNATELY DO NOT KNOW
H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS H8TERS
have no control over how to run
ON THE POVERTY OF their own lives, they look outside of
CHICANX ARTISTS themselves for salvation. The artist
finds his calling in “self-expression”,
El Chavo
creating art pieces in which she can
This essay comes from the aftermath of
live out a dull reflection of what has
the LA ‘92 riots. We republish it here for
the many self-described revolutionary not been possible in real life. That’s
artists we have met on our journeys in not beautiful; it’s pathetic.
north Texas and beyond.
In a world that runs on a heavy dose
If the artist is not the most hated of alienation the reverence for art
member of the Chicanx commu- serves only to strengthen that so-
nity it is certain that a very healthy ciety. The emergence of the Chica-
disgust towards the artist is felt by no Art scene is a movement of the
many in the barrio. In the artists at- forgotten commodity back into the
tempt to express themselves, speak flow of the marketplace; the desire
for La Raza, or to raise their con- to belong within the world of sep-
sciousness, they come short of the aration; to be bought and sold like
mark. The inherent poverty of the everyone else. The artist has no vi-
art scene is its inability to under- sion. She fails to see what is truly
stand and change society, its refus- beautiful, just as they failed to see
al to see itself as a market place for the poetry in the streets during the
one more commodity. This is what rioting in ‘92. Can their little doo-
we detest. From cholos to viejitas, to dles ever top the critique of daily life
mocosos and their relatives, every- that the looters offered in their fes-
one hates the false notion of the art- tive events? Of course not.
ist as a representative of our needs or
as a spokesperson for change. So what happens to La Raza once
the artist sells his piece, gets her
All the novelty rappers, uninspired grant, or has that special gallery
singers, hack writers, crayola paint- showing? Nothing. All the people
ers, pretentious poets, and the hard- that you aim to represent on your
ly-funny cartoonists and comedians canvas or in your poems, we still
that make up the Chicano And have to exist in the same ghettoes,
Chicana Artist (CACA) cultural we still have to work in the same
scene imagine themselves to be that stupid jobs, or wait in the same
which they are not: for some reason welfare lines. We will never see you
they believe that they are a challenge there. You will never mean anything
or an opposition to the dominant to us.
culture. The truth is that they are
merely another aspect of the same We laugh at you and the society
society or as some would accurately you reinforce.
call it, they are part of the specta-
Give it up.
cle of negation. When a person’s life
lacks in meaning, pleasure, and they You’re headed nowhere.
05
Lifted from Anarchy Comics which ran during the ‘80s. It seems like the more things
change, the more they stay the same.
sity and reimagine our relationship to
The Irredeemable
EXCERPTS FROM
knowledge and its production. Some of

UNIVERSITY us have been fired and cast aside while
others of us contort in the discomfort of
A roundtable discussion with current and
our own complicity and contradictions.
former graduate workers of Abolish the UC
We’ve used this space as an opportunity
We include this text from comrades on to talk with one another and to tell each
the West coast to help shatter the no- other how we got here; how we arrived
tion many radicals implicity assume at abolition; what we mean when we
about the liberatory potential of the say it, and, importantly, why it mat-
university. Our own experiences have ters, especially for our communities. We
shown us that universities are simply have come to the table with stories to
sites of training for the future manag- tell and with lessons we’ve learned. We
ers of this world, a site of recuperation know more is to come, but we want
and defanging. to mark this moment with our words
because we are reimagining a world
The University of California is irre- beyond the university.
deemable. Broadly, the modern uni-
versity system is a series of institutions There is no salvation for an institu-
that perpetuate settler colonialism and tion invested in dispossession, depor-
racial capitalism. Entrenched in a his- tation, and immiseration. The UC
tory of imperialism, colonization, and has destroyed communities that came
white supremacy, universities profit before us and continues to perpetuate
from dispossession and racialized vio- violence on the people and communities
lence. And the UC is especially guilty. to whom we are accountable. We have
Since the late 19th century, the profits been left with no other option. This is
from the seizure and selling of Indig- why we say: “Abolish the UC!”
enous lands have laid the foundation
for its now 21.1 billion dollar endow- This is an invitation—across the UC
ment. With this understanding, we and beyond—for old and new com-
argue that the UC cannot be saved nor rades, allies, and homies to join us in
should it be reformed. Abolition is the fucking shit up. Keep an eye out for
only option. forthcoming writings, projects, and
actions from our crew, including a
“Abolish the UC” is a formation of UC-wide Disorientation Guide to be
BIPOC, queer, and first generation released in the fall!
graduate student workers and our ac-
complices, drawn together by shared Follow us and our comrades: disori-
visions and antagonisms; the univer- entation.guide; @a_place4us_ (IG/
sity wasn’t made for us, nor is it the Twitter); @AbolishUCD (IG/Twit-
locus of our desires. Below you’ll find a ter); @abolishtheuc (IG).
collection of writings drawn from on-
going conversations between current AQ: We are here for many reasons,
and former graduate workers across the arriving from just as many different
UCs who want to abolish the univer- paths. We come here from places
07
of frustration, despair, hope, love, framework that asks us to radically
and inspiration. Exhausted by the reimagine institutions such as the
patronizing language of so-called UC, in light of this entity’s com-
allies, the tokenization of our iden- plicity with genocide, slavery, and
tities and struggles, we’ve found the military and prison industrial
refuge among comraderie and com- complexes. Resisting neoliberalism,
munity. dismantling capitalism and class
struggle at large, transforms within
For first gen and poor students of this abolitionist framework. Think-
color in particular, the university ing and moving deeper, and beyond,
conjures up feelings of cognitive dis- abolition asks us to make these in-
sonance. Commonly viewed as a site tersectional, complex connections
of refuge for those on the underside and to operate from a politic that
of capitalist society, the university makes oppressive systems obsolete
banks (literally) on its myth of er- by building radical and commu-
udition and progress. Yet, once they nity-grounded alternatives. One
arrive, students are forced to con- example of this is the abolitionist
form to the folly of professionalism. work to close prisons and detention
Our feelings of uneasiness and anx- centers while also building restor-
iety are dismissed as maladjustment, ative systems of community care
to be remedied by more acclamation and transformative justice in their
and conformity. This is our sentip- place. For the UC, this would mean
ensar, our holistic way of thinking dismantling the increasingly privat-
with feelings bestowed on us by our ized, corporatized, and militarized
ancestors. It is our way of recogniz- university—an institution that is
ing that something is wrong. So we itself already built on a foundation-
are conflicted. Caught between the al violence of settler colonialism,
hopes and dreams of our commu- genocide, and slavery—while also
nity and the violent nature of the breathing life into Other ways of
university that we encounter once knowing and educating our com-
we arrive. munities. We follow the path of our
abolitionist ancestors such as Har-
As we build towards strong and vi- riet Tubman, W.E.B. DuBois, and
able alternatives, we will count on Frantz Fanon, as well as our (r)evo-
those on the inside, the saboteurs lutionary elders and teachers such as
and subversives. Until we have our Angela Davis, Ruthie Gilmore, and
alternatives, we will rely on accom- Dean Spade. Historical movements
plices and guides in the undercom- such as the Third World Liberation
mons, while we conspire and protect Front (TWLF) also guide this work,
one another. especially at the UC, as they envi-
sioned and won a Third World Col-
M: Abolition is a political tradi- lege in 1969. As an ongoing strug-
tion—rooted in the abolition of gle, we continue to be guided by the
slavery, colonialism, patriarchy, TWLF’s principles of self-determi-
and the nation state. Abolition is a nation, solidarity, and building an
08
education that is directly relevant to cidental deaths. I did end up finish-
the needs of Black and Indigenous ing my BA at a state school and I
communities, and communities of was lucky enough to have wonderful
color. intellectual experiences there. But I
will probably die with student loan
J: I am writing to my past self. I am debt. Hopefully, my cosigners will
writing for every Black girl on a diffi- die first. If there is an answer to
cult path. I am writing against a cost what path I could have taken, I still
of living adjustment in an inherently don’t know it. Go the cheapest path.
unlivable situation. The money that Steal whatever you can. Higher ed-
I make as a graduate student is more ucation wants to extract everything
than I’ve ever made at any other job. out of you. Hold on to yourself and
My participation in the UC system grab what you can.
kills people. Like so much else in
our capitalist system, I am kept alive
by others’ death. When I say I am
writing to myself, I mean to remind
myself that I came to the UC with a
spark. We are each carrying a spark
and we each have the tools to turn
this into a true (metaphorical) fire.
So, would I recommend younger

siblings or family to attend this in-
stitution? Not unless they are being
paid well; ask for more money! I
don’t know if I had much of a choice
whether or not to attend a violent
and colonial institution. When I Liked this piece? Venmo @
was a kid I was labeled as “college Cola4all to support Abolish
bound,” which sounded great to my the UC directly.
parents who never had that oppor-
tunity. As I got older, I was explicitly You can read the full essay by
told that I could “do better” than a going to atm-magazine.com/
state school: that if I didn’t go to a issue-1-wicked/the-irredeemable-
name brand school, I would never university
make anything of myself. So I did or by scanning the QR code
what I thought I was supposed to
do and went to a private, fancy, out-
of-state school. The unfathomable
expense was supposed to pay off lat-
er. Instead, it almost killed me and I
dropped out. It did kill some of my
peers; the school had a high suicide
rate and a suspicious amount of ac-
09
and after their deaths what they
THIS IS THE DEFINITION did and who they were has been
OF CLASS HATRED cancelled out. But what they made
has continued into our present,
Monsieur Dupont
their burial and decay is our pres-
This selection comes from the preamble
ent.
of the book Nihilist Communism.
The inluence of the text can be felt
throughout this publication and our This is the definition of class ha-
(anti-)politics. We include it to help tred. We are no closer now to
you understand our positions. rest, to freedom, to communism
than they were, their sacrifice has
Death appears as the harsh vic-
bought us nothing, what they did
tory of the law of our ancestors
counted for nothing, we have in-
over the dimension of our becom-
herited nothing, we work as they
ing. It is a fact that, as produc-
worked, we make as they made, we
tivity increases, each succeeding
are paid as they were paid. We do
generation becomes smaller. The
not possess either our acts or the
defeat of our fathers is revisited
world that conditions us, just as
upon us as the limits of our world.
they owned nothing of their lives.
Yes, structure is human, it is the
monumentalisation of congealed
Yes they produced value, they
sweat, sweat squeezed from old
made the world in which we now
exploitation and represented as
live. The world that now weighs
nature, the world we inhabit, the
down upon us is constructed from
objective ground. We do not, in
the wealth they made, wealth that
our busy insect-like comings and
was taken from them as soon as
goings, make the immediate world
they were paid their wage, tak-
in which we live, we do not make
en and owned by someone else,
a contribution, on the contrary we
owned and used to define the na-
are set in motion by it; a genera-
ture of ownership and the class
tion will pass before what we have
domination that preserves it.
done as an exploited class will seep
through as an effect of objectivity.
We too must work, and the val-
(Our wealth is laid down in heav-
ue we produce leaks away from
en.) The structure of the world was
us, from each only a trickle but
built by the dead, they were paid
in all a sea of it and that, for the
in wages, and when the wages were
next generation, will thicken into
spent and they were dead in the
wealth for others to own and as a
ground, what they had made con-
congealed structure it will be used
tinued to exist, these cities, roads
as a vantage point for the bour-
and factories are their calcified
geoisie to direct new enterprises
bones.
in new and different directions but
demanding always the same work.
They had nothing but their wages
to show for what they had done
The class war begins in the dese-
10
cration of our ancestors: millions work becomes the structure that
of people going to their graves as dominates our existence. As our
failures, forever denied the expe- parents die, we can say truly that
rience of a full human existence, their lives were for nothing, that
their being was simply cancelled the black earth that is thrown down
out. The violence of the bourgeoi- onto them blacks out our sky.
sie’s appropriation of the world of
11
It is the most expressive and emo-
THE MOST AMERICAN tive picture of Trump ever taken.
P R E S I D E NLuci!
T It reveals what a broken and dis-
traught man lies behind the typ-
ical smug aura of the real estate
On Saturday, June 21, president
mogul turned politician. In a way,
Donald Trump held one of his be-
it’s humanizing, and it demon-
loved rallies in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
strates something about the aver-
the first in many months. This ral-
age Trump voter, and, by extension,
ly served to prepare his re-election
what it means to be American.
campaign and to boost morale for
both his wavering supporters - and
Trump ran on a platform of Amer-
for himself. The rally, which was
ican mythology. “Make America
expected to attract more than one
great again” is the assertion that
million, suffered from poor turn-
the United States was once great,
out.
that the legend of American pros-
perity and happiness was once a
Trump returned to the White
reality, that it is no longer, and the
House after spending just 3 hours
promise that we can return. The
in Tulsa. As he walked across the
era we are attempting to make a
White House lawn, a reporter cap-
return to is a moving target. No
tured a picture of him. The picture
one has a concrete idea. And that’s
displayed a Donald Trump that I
okay. It’s not meant to be concrete;
had never seen before. His pos-
it’s mythology.
ture was hunched. His gaze was
turned downwards. His eyebrows
This platform resonated with a
were furrowed as he frowned. His
very specific demographic. Trump
suit was unbuttoned to reveal his
had many different types of voters,
red tie hanging limply around his
but his most reliable and his most
neck. He carried his signature red
fervent were white suburbanites.
hat crumpled in his left hand.
For this demographic, the myth of
America is very much alive, even
It is a renaissance painting.
if it isn’t achievable. These white
suburbanites, some of which are
affluent, many of which down-
wardly-mobile, hold the values of
the United States as gospel: mer-
itocracy, individualism, and above
all, material wealth and the happi-
ness it supposedly entails.
These are values upon which

America was founded. Howev-
er, for many people living in the
United States, these values were
12
not as heavily internalized. Among was meant to create. As economic
black, native, and other people of crises and opioids destroy what’s
color, support for the philosophies left of the so-called middle class,
of Americanism is limited, as the this feeling intensifies.
country was built to exclude them
from the prosperity it created. As Donald Trump is the embodi-
the country shifted to assimilate ment of the American dream, both
these groups by giving them rights of its material success and of its
previously only enjoyed by white profound lack of fulfillment. In
Americans, the foundational ideals journalist Michael D’Antonio’s
were diffused into their communi- interviews for his 2014 book ‘The
ties, but never fully adopted. Truth About Trump’, the billion-
aire states that his favorite song is
White Americans, the people for Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is?”
whom America was created, the He explains that he finds the lyrics
people with more generational relatable in his own life.
wealth than any other racial group
in the United States, the people “It’s a great song because I’ve had
who still hold supermajorities these tremendous successes and
of federal political positions and then I’m off to the next one. Be-
corporate CEO seats, also believe cause, it’s like, ‘Oh, is that all there
more firmly in American values is?’”
than anyone else. America remains
a country built for their own ben- He went from rich to richer, liv-
efit. It is made up of others whom ing in opulence and luxury most
they have tried to assimilate, but cannot imagine, and yet he seems
it remains for the white American. perpetually unsatisfied. He went
from being an ultra-wealthy elite
To be an American in the twen- to becoming the most famous man
ty-first century is to be a white in the world in the office of the
person of the professional or capi- president, but only expressed joy
tal owning class. For all others, the at proving his detractors wrong
United States was never built to rather than being proud of his
accommodate. accomplishment for its own sake.
His affinity for petty arguments
This creates a problem when the and name-calling does not exude
United States cannot deliver on the energy of someone who is
the promises made to its constit- confident, but rather of someone
uents. The belief in the values of who is deeply insecure. Trump
America creates a sort of cognitive identifies and shares many of the
dissonance. Many of these subur- same anxieties as his voters, and
banites are unhappy, as either they this endears himself to them. The
do not have the wealth their hard American dream has failed him in
work was meant to create or do not much the same way it has failed
have the happiness their wealth his supporters.
13
When capitalism enters stages of One of Trump’s most repeated
precarity, it tends to coincide with selling points is that “he is not a
an increase of support for nation- politician”. He’s a New York real
alism, authoritarianism, and even estate mogul whose search for at-
fascism among the more affluent tention and approval landed him
or privileged classes, in hopes that almost by accident into the White
the status quo will be restored. House. He is fundamentally dif-
This is repeated time and time ferent than many who take the
again throughout the world. political fast-track from either
Ivy League school or military of-
In his first run for office, his ficer to senator or congressperson,
rhetoric and campaign promises and as such does not share the
sparked the ire of the democrat- same motivations or goals. Trump
ic establishment and media class. is more motivated by good-old-
They feared that he would become fashioned personal gain than by a
the first truly fascist president if burning inner desire to perpetuate
elected. His platform of right- capitalism or American empire.
wing populism drew comparisons When he expresses sympathies for
to the rise of authoritarianism in fascism, they do not necessarily
other countries. entail a desire to actually do the
work of enacting them.
After four years of his administra-
tion, there is no indication that we Trump, like his voters, is discon-
have significantly accelerated the tent and wants the world to return
decline towards fascism. Certain- to the idyllic ‘Leave It to Beaver’
ly not when we consider policies world of yesteryear that never
and actions that would have been actually existed. Fascism is char-
taken under a Clinton or Cruz acterized by an intriguing lack of
presidency. The United States has creativity coupled with cowardice.
been in a steady downward spiral The fascist would say instead of
towards fascism for decades, from adapting to the changing world,
the destruction of labor unions to let’s retain the structure and hier-
the militarization of the police to archies of the existing world, and
the creation and expansion of the force others to either fit into that
surveillance state and institutions structure or be removed entirely,
such as the DHS and ICE. This because the uncertainty of creat-
downward slope remains constant ing a new system is more terrifying
throughout both Republican and than the atrocities we will commit
Democratic presidencies. Trump upholding the skeleton of the old
is a continuation of this trend. He system. They are impatient and
expresses sympathies for fascistic want the world to return to a sense
policies, but does not seek to enact of stability by any means - but
them with the fervor one might many of them do not have a desire
expect, because he is not ideologi- to do the work of achieving that.
cally driven towards fascism.
14
In this regard, Trump is exactly as landscape indignantly cried “this
his voters. Trump is a non-politi- is not us. This is not who we are.”
cian who achieved political office They held the idea that the elec-
but retained his general disinterest tion of Donald Trump was an ab-
for ideologically driven politics. erration, a break from tradition.
He is a man of the people in that Un-American. I posit a count-
he is just as discontent and inse- er-argument: this is who we have
cure as the white suburbanites always been.
who put him in office. His wealth
and privilege has allowed him no We each grasp at the loose threads
comfort. He is alienated, searching hoping to find our happiness and
endlessly for anything to keep him watch helplessly as the country
occupied and distracted. unravels. What could be more
American than that?
After the 2016 presidential elec-
tion, liberals across the media
15
time-sensitive meds, rely on the
7 REASONS TO USPS. Many people who live in
rural areas, including reservations,
HATE THE SEASON are at risk of not getting mail ser-
tanze/vatt
vice at all. But the electoralists
It’s 2020, and it’s that time again.
don’t think of the people—they
Election season—and hate is in the
think of the game. So it imme-
air. Finally, many leftists in favor of
diately became a question of vot-
voting are beginning to slide away
ing—who cares if you can’t get your
from this bias, hopefully ready to
insulin? What matters more is that
lay down the last vestiges of liber-
you won’t be able to vote. It’s all
alism, or even move past the left.
about the Republicans attacking
What’s more likely, however, is that
voter rights so that not as many
a shiny new candidate—a Bernie
people can vote Democrat in No-
2—will come along and, provided
vember.
elections continue, they’ll fall back
into their old campaign-obsessed
Here’s an excerpt from an article
ways. This isn’t addressed to them
in the R apid City Journal, out of
alone. The following essay is also
Rapid City, South Dakota, that
for those who ask, “Why wouldn’t
details some impacts that closing
you vote?”; who say it’s harmless;
USPS offices in rural communi-
who say it’s a “strategy.”
ties, particularly those on reserva-
tions, has:
Voting: it’s the reason for the sea-
son (election season). And we hate Reservation residents depend
every second of it. upon their local post offices to
keep their mailed medicines and
1/ IT ’S ALL JUST A GAME Social Security, veterans’ benefit
It’s unclear whether the political and other checks safe. They do
game erodes empathy or shows their business at the post office,
how little there was to begin with. buying money orders to pay
Maybe both. Either way, election their monthly expenses. Cus-
season is a great time to find out tomers of the Allen, Manderson
who has their head all the way up and Wounded Knee post offices
their own ass—it’s interesting that frequently walk long distances
electoralists will use often throw or wait days to use precious gas
accusations of moral superiority to collect their mail.
complexes at those who don’t vote, Now, those same people are
and then go on to be ethically staggered by the news that the
bankrupt while acting as the actual U.S. Postal Service has placed
holier-than-thou party. the three post offices on a list
of almost 3,700 post offices un-
With the USPS in danger of being der review for possible closings.
dismantled, many people worry Eighty small post offices across
that their medications, including South Dakota are on the list,
16
including 11 on or near reserva- it’s worth noting that the west
tions.1 coast is all blue. More important-
ly, Indigenous people and envi-
This may sound like a coordinated
ronmentalists have pointed out
attack on the part of the Trump
again and again that wildfires are
administration to restrict voting
intensified by settler governments
access. Except the article, entitled
banning of traditional controlled
Post Off ices Vital to Reservation
burns, which leads to a buildup of
Communities, was published in
detritus that, once inevitably ignit-
2011, during Obama’s first term
ed, grows out of control. This will,
in office, and is one of hundreds of
like ecological collapse, happen
similar articles from its time. The
regardless of political leadership
Obama Administration also made
as long as the land remains under
attempts to gut the postal service,
colonial occupation.
so it’s a little bit bizarre for liberals
to use this as a reason to vote blue.
Of course it’s possible to be con-
More than that, it comes across as
cerned over how these events are
callous towards those impacted by
affecting people and also about
post office closings and mail box
voting, if the latter is what you care
removals in both 2011 and 2020.
about. But to jump first to how any
It’s too bad that your life or live-
decision or crisis will impact your
lihood might suffer—what’s worse
candidate and last to how actual
is that my team might lose.
humans are faring—and how vot-
ing will have any real impact on
This type of thinking can be seen
any of this? It feels asinine. Both
elsewhere. What was once con-
parties invest heavily in fossil fu-
sidered “extreme” weather is now
els. The democrats dropped ending
the norm. In August, a massive
fossil fuel dependence from their
derecho—a large line of storms—
platform as usual, choosing to
swept through Iowa, causing wide-
continue subsidizing dirty energy.2
spread destruction that included
flooding, power outages, and crop 2 Irfan, Umar. “Democrats Have Made A
damage. In the following week, Puzzling Decision To Drop Their Demand
too many liberals took to social To End Fossil Fuel Subsidies”. Vox, 2020.
media to lament how this would As of September 2020, the Democrats
have wavered on whether or not to include
impact Iowa voters’ ability to go to eliminating fossil fuel subsidies as part of
the polls. Something similar hap- their platform. This kind of indecision is part
pened as the west coast burned, as of the problem of electoral politics, rather
if Trump caused the wildfires that than an argument in favor of public opinion
changing the tide. Also, the time to end
have been intensifying for similar fossil fuel subsidies—a bare-minimum ap-
reasons. Frenzied liberals again proach—was decades ago. As stated, we do
implored everyone to vote—but not have time for the spineless inaction and
voting doesn’t put out fires. And meaningless talk provided by this party. The
catastrophic collapses predicted—again—
1 Cook, Andrea. “Post Offices Vital To decades ago are already falling into place.
Reservation Communities”. Rapid City This includes the “natural disasters” men-
Journal, 2011. tioned in the first part of this essay; it should
17
The Paris Agreement was an infa- if you abstain from voting. There’s
mous failure.3 And the severity of an assumption that if you’re
storms like the recent Iowa dere- against voting then you either ha-
chos is directly linked to climate ven’t thought it through or are too
change. Something that both par- privileged to care.
ties—all political parties, consid-
ering that even the Greens’ plans 2/ REPRESENTATION IS RE-
tend to be vague since they won’t PRESSION
win anyway—refuse to address in An accusation often thrown by the
any real, material capacity. It’s a pro-voters at anyone who immedi-
game, and it’s a game of worth- ately doesn’t put all their oppres-
less platitudes and empty promises sion cards on the table is one of
that the politicians will renege or “privilege.” One darkly funny side
dither on once in office. effect of this tendency crops up oc-
casionally: the person making the
Electoral obsession is the game accusation will be more privileged
of treating people like pawns and than whoever they’re whining at
then yelling at those very same (the idea that privilege is a game
people for being upset at this of points to be added up is a gross
treatment. It’s big talk about “mar- oversimplification that I’m not
ginalized folk” and accusations of trying to imply here). White lib-
privilege that are more often than erals calling certain anti-electoral
not thrown right back in the fac- Black people “privileged” for not
es of marginalized folks. In fact, voting is a bizarre cognitive leap,
if you a re from any marginalized but it happens, especially on the
demographic and have expressed a internet. But this is all anecdot-
disdain for political theater, there’s al, so let’s pretend that everyone
a high likelihood that some liber- who doesn’t vote does so because
al has insinuated that you a ctually they’re too privileged to care or
don’t know what’s best for yourself be harmed in any significant way.
Here are two of the roads we can
be noted how both parties utterly failed in
directing resources to preparation and aid, take here:
as is the supposed purpose of politics. The
Green New Deal would have done very little First, why should they? If someone
in terms of addressing climate change, and
doesn’t vote out of privilege, then
the fact that the Democrats so aggressively
sabotage their slightly leftward and overall wouldn’t you want them to abstain
more popular membership should also serve anyway?
as an indictment against reformism.
3 Leahy, Stephen. “Most Countries Aren’t
Because, second, why would they
Hitting 2030 Climate Goals, And Everyone
Will Pay The Price”. nationalgeographic.com, have any motivation to vote in
2020; Allan, Jill. “Dangerous Incrementalism your favor—provided you’re all
Of The Paris Agreement.” Global Environ- concerned with human rights and
mental Politics. Vol. 19 No 1. MIT Press. 2019;
equality and whatever other En-
Splash, Clive. “This Changes Nothing: The
Paris Agreement To Ignore Reality”. Taylor lightenment buzzwords you think
& Francis, 2016. have meaningful value? Those
18
with privilege will tend to vote of coherence and nebulousness of
with their own interests in mind; terminology as it relates to “com-
all historical precedent points to munity.”
this. You can try and obfuscate
this by, for example, acting like Of course, most arguments in the
rural whites voted for Trump be- direction of representation are also
cause they’re rural and not because predicated on the idea that the U.S.
they’re white. Whiteness has ev- system is truly representational. “If
erything to do with the way they, we only had this group represent-
like their counterparts in the cit- ed in congress, then they could
ies and suburbs, voted. Wouldn’t empower their community!” is the
the vote of the less privileged have same argument that supporters
more sway if the privileged ab- of capitalism make; “If only this
stained from voting? group could own more businesses,
the revenue will go back into their
Often the next line of argument is communities.” Exploitation is not
that many “underprivileged” folks, empowerment. Politicians exploit
such as many immigrants and in “their” constituency like capital-
particular undocumented immi- ists exploit “their” community.
grants, can’t vote, and so the “priv- When someone is elected into of-
ileged” must wield their electoral fice, their relationship to whatever
power in the favor of those who community they claim changes—
can’t vote. There are problems with they now have power. ziq put it
this idea. The political philanthro- succinctly: “Giving a person power
py idea is patronizing to the point and expecting them to not use it
of insult. There’s no such thing as to cement even more power for
being a voice for the voiceless— themselves is as foolish as Charlie
people are “voiceless” because Brown trying to kick the football
they’re being talked over. And while Lucy holds it.”4
that’s what our electoral system is.
A politician makes sacrifices to
Acting like anyone’s interchange- get into office, and those sacrific-
able is dehumanizing, and even es are invariably at the expense of
pretending that some shared iden- the most vulnerable among “their”
tities equals common goals, es- constituency to appeal to the vot-
pecially considering the fact that ers with the most capital—this
many of these groupings –such as only becomes more egregious as
the “LGBT community” or “Lat- one moves up the ladder from
in Americans” or “Asian Ameri- local to federal. As Lucy Parsons
cans”—are not coherent enough pointed out over a century ago
to be meaningful. You can even in The Ballot Humbug, it’s “mon-
belong to the same “communi- ey and not votes” that “rules the
ty” as someone else...while also people. Capitalists no longer care
not, really,belonging to the same
4 ziq. “Do Anarchists Vote In State Elec-
community because of this lack tions?” 2018. Originally posted on raddle.me.
19
to buy the voters, they simply buy Pakistan, and all the other places
the ‘servants’ after they have been the U.S. destabilizes and reigns
elected to ‘serve.’ The idea that the terror upon not matter as long as
poor man’s vote amounts to any- you can share in the spoils of war?
thing is the veriest delusion. The You cannot harbor a desire for a
ballot is only the paper veil that piece of the wealth with no regard
hides the tricks.” for where that wealth comes from.
Participation in this system legiti-
Your vote doesn’t matter. mizes this. But this is the part of
the argument that electoralists are
3/CITIZENSHIP IS AN INSULT often calling moralistic and theo-
Citizenship, like representation, retical—and if Not America exists
like progress, is also predicat- only in the realm of theoretical,
ed on assimilation and coercion. then sure. It’s pure theory. A lot
It’s a “Join, or Die” system. Why of arguments center themselves
clamor for recognition from the on how electoralism doesn’t help,
state? For services like healthcare but in many ways it’s an active dis-
and infrastructure? Why is a state service to the communities that
even necessary in instances like liberals and leftists always wanna
this? Infrastructure projects are pretend to care so much about.
put in place in service to colonial
4/ PROGRESS IS A MYTH
interests and/or in service to cap-
ital; see the railroad and highway In The Ballot Humbug, Parsons
systems as examples. Even free also said: “We know there never
healthcare under capitalism is only was a law passed that ever prevent-
in place to ensure a more produced one single crime from being
tive proletariat. committed.” Likewise, there isn’t
a single social issue or societal ill
It’s insulting to tell someone priv- or injustice or policy of depravity
ileged with citizenship that they that has been voted into oblivion.
must vote for the good of the Maybe the earliest progressives
noncitizen who cannot vote. The and communists who ran for of-
ICE concentration camps will not fice in vain can be forgiven, a lit-
be voted away. The citizen cannot tle; there wasn’t yet a precedent for
exist without the noncitizen—the progressives in office, or failing to
exploiter cannot exist without the be placed in office. It should, how-
exploited. This means that suffer- ever, be noted that many of their
ing on a grand scale will happen contemporaries were already of-
as long as the empire is in place. fering criticisms of the electoral
Even if the U.S. could be voted system. The idea that everything
into a functional social democracy will naturally “get better” if we can
or welfare state, this all comes at put the right people in power as
the expense of someone. Do the today’s progressives seem to think
lives of the poor in Afghanistan, isn’t supported by any historical
Iran, Palestine, Yemen, Nigeria, evidence.
20
tel slavery, a whole civil war. And
Slavery didn’t end. They work on even then they had to put a provi-
plantations in the South, fight fires sion in the 13th amendment—that
in California, and work in facto- infamous line: except as punishment
ries New York. The slaves of today for a crime.
may be given air conditioning and
$3 an hour for their more stren- This may seem counter intuitive
uous labor (minimum wage for considering suffrage was one of
prisoners is eighty-six cents)—is the “rights” allegedly fought for by
that progress?5 It’s no coincidence activists of the past. But that ar-
that that the U.S. prison popula- gument—that “people fought for
tion is heavily racialized—most y/our right to vote so you should
statistics put the percentage of show y/our gratitude by voting”—
Black inmates at around 40%, flattens “activists” of the past into
even though Black Americans one single-minded Movement.
make up less than 15% of the total That’s not how anything ever
U.S. population.6 Louisiana State works. Anarchists like Emma
Penitentiary is built on the site Goldman and Lucy Parsons crit-
of a former plantation, a majori- icized their contemporaneous
ty of its population is Black, and women’s suffrage movement. Par-
many of them get assigned to till sons referred to electoralism as a
the same plot of soil worked by “modern delusion” in 1905; Gold-
slaves less than two centuries ago.7 man, in her 1911 essay W oman
Is this kind of progress significant Suffrage,called it “fetich worship.”
enough to warrant a continuation In the essay, Goldman points out
of this system, so that maybe, in an some of contradictions that were
alternate universe where climate clear even at the time:
change doesn’t kill us all by then,
The poor, stupid, free American
maybeour great grandchildren can
citizen! Free to starve, free to
live to see the day where prisoners
tramp the highways of this great
are paid $8 an hour? The evils of
country, he enjoys universal suf-
the American empire don’t wither
frage, and, by that right, he has
away under electoral or legislative
forged chains about his limbs.
pressure—concessions granted
The reward that he receives is
have always taken protests (usually
stringent labor laws prohibiting
less-than-peaceful), riots, and, in
the right of boycott, of picketing,
the case of “officially” ending chat-
in fact, of everything, except the
right to be robbed of the fruits
5 Sawyer, Wendy. “How Much Do
Incarcerated People Earn In Each State?”. of his labor.
prisonpolicy.org, 2017.
6 “BOP Statistics: Inmate Race” Federal
Following that, W oman Suffrage
Bureau of Prisons. bop.gov. 2020. also acts as an early criticism of
7 “Angola State Prison: A Short History | the empty representation-based
Voices Behind Bars: National Public Radio politics so prevalent in today’s pro-
And Angola State Prison”. Columbia Univer-
sity. ccnmtl.columbia.edu
gressive circles:
21
[...]Yet all these disastrous re- gay, a trans person who “tries.”
sults of the twentieth-century Progress as assimilation is not a
fetich have taught woman noth- forward march; it’s cyclical, a dog
ing. But, then, woman will purify chasing its own tail. It’s based on
politics, we are assured. compromise after compromise un-
til you’ve been chewed up, re-di-
Needless to say, I am not opposed
gested and shat out enough times
to woman suffrage on the con-
to be acceptable. In Voting is Not
ventional ground that she is not
Harm Reduction, t he author or au-
equal to it. I see neither physi-
thors discuss the ties between as-
cal, psychological, nor mental
similation and the “Native vote”:
reasons why woman should not
have the equal right to vote with In 1887, U.S. Congress passed
man. [...] Since woman’s great- the General Allotment Act,
est misfortune has been that she more commonly known as the
was looked upon as either angel Dawes Act, which was designed
or devil, her true salvation lies in to expedite colonial invasion, fa-
being placed on earth; namely, cilitate resource extraction, and
in being considered human, and to further assimilate Indigenous
therefore subject to all human Peoples into the colonial social
follies and mistakes. Are we, order. The Dawes Act marked a
then, to believe that two errors shift from a military strategy to
will make a right? Are we to an economic and political one
assume that the poison already where reservations were sepa-
inherent in politics will be de- rated into individual lots, with
creased, if women were to enter only male “heads of households”
the political arena? to receive 160 acres with any re-
maining lands put up for sale to
Ideas of representation within the
white invaders who flocked in
current status quo go hand-in-
droves to inherit their “Mani-
hand with ideas about “progress,”
fest Destiny.” Indigenous Peo-
because we’re told that an increase
ples who accepted allotments
in representation is a positive side
could receive U.S. citizenship,
effect of this progress. But this is
and although this was the first
based on assimilationist ideas—
congressional act to provide the
representation is the reward for
status, it came at the expense of
assimilation, and assimilation is
sacrificing Indigenous People’s
predicated on subjugation. The
cultural and political identities
“minorities” must always com-
in many ways, particularly by
promise—you must not seem too
further fracturing the integrity
threatening to the establishment
of Indigenous matriarchal so-
to be rewarded with representa-
cieties. Under the Dawes Act,
tion. You must be the right kind
Indigenous lands were reduced
of Black, “hardworking” if you’re
from 138 million to 52 million
disabled, an unwaveringly patriot-
acres. In 1890, the overall Indig-
ic immigrant, a white-picket-fence
22
enous population was reduced IWW, Industrial Workers of the
to about 250,000 from tens of World, used the term for gild-
millions at the time of initial ed age strikes. Anarchists, com-
European invasion. In contrast, munists, leftists, activists, et al.
the colonizer’s U.S. population will talk about “propaganda of
had increased to 62,622,250 the the deed,” sabotage, varying lev-
same year. els of violence and nonviolence,
[...] terrorism. And it can be nebu-
U.S. citizenship was imposed to lous at times, especially when the
destroy Indigenous sovereignty more useful conversation revolves
and facilitate mass-scale land around “What works?” rather than
theft. To this day, the “Native semantics. But one thing is clear
vote” is bound to assimilationist for sure: voting is not direct action.
conditions that serve colonial
interests. In D irect Action: An Ethnography,
David Graeber gives insight into
Genocide, like slavery, is ongo-
some difference between direct
ing and bipartisan. The Standing
action and civil disobedience, both
Rock protests happened under the
terms often abused by liberals:
Obama administration, which was
also able to stymie “progressive” Typically, one practicing civil
movements like Occupy and then disobedience is also willing to
for a time Black Lives Matter. accept the legal consequenc-
Electoralism does not propel us es of his actions. Direct action
gradually towards a freer state of takes matters a step further. The
being. You cannot tweak the sys- direct actionist does not just
tem or adjust the course to some refuse to pay taxes to support a
idyllic perfect democracy because militarized school system, she
the system is functioning as in- combines with others to try to
tended; why would wealthy white create a new school system that
racists of the eighteenth century operates on different principles.
care to conceptualize a system that She proceeds as she would if the
could be used to put them on the state did not exist and leaves it
same level as even poor whites, let to the state’s representatives to
alone the slaves that many of them decide whether to try to send
“owned”? armed men to stop her.
5/ VOTING IS NOT DIRECT Direct action is about asserting

ACTION yourself. That can mean making
demands via strike; it can mean
This is going to be brief, since the throwing Molotovs. The former
answer to this claim is: no. No, it’s may be demanding better work-
not. ing conditions; the latter may be
trying to set a building on fire.
“Direct action” means different There is a goal in mind to directly
things in different circles. The achieve. Electoralism is indirect by
23
nature. There are no demands to The political superstition is still
voting—just, again, vague prom- holding sway over the hearts
ises. Direct action doesn’t necessi- and minds of the masses, but the
tate demands, but if the end goal true lovers of liberty will have no
is getting a candidate elected and more to do with it. Instead, they
nothing more (than vague promis- believe with Stirner that man
es) then what’s the point in calling has as much liberty as he is will-
it direct action? There’s no direc- ing to take. Anarchism therefore
tion and there’s no action. Calling stands for direct action, the open
voting “direct action” doesn’t make defiance of, and resistance to, all
sense. That’s like saying voting is laws and restrictions, economic,
“mutual aid” because some social social, and moral. But defiance
services may or may not be allot- and resistance are illegal. Therein
ted to your area by the candidate lies the salvation of man. Every-
you voted for. Voting is begging thing illegal necessitates integri-
for scraps—that’s an antithesis to ty, self-reliance, and courage.
direct action. Graeber often de-
If you’re into lobbying and politics
fines “direct action” as some iter-
and electoralism, if descriptions
ation of how it “means insisting
and depictions of actual direct
on acting as if one is already free.”
action make you angry or scared
Emma Goldman discusses direct
because people are being inconve-
action in Anarchism: What It Really
nienced or hurt or even killed or
Stands For (1910):
property is being damaged, then
Even were the workers able to you need to stop playing radical
have their own representatives, dress-up and stop using “direct ac-
for which our good Socialist tion” as an excuse for your elector-
politicians are clamoring, what al fetish or go call your senator or
chances are there for their hon- something you approve of.
esty and good faith? One has but
to bear in mind the process of 6/ VOTING IS NOT HARM RE-
politics to realize that its path of DUCTION
good intentions is full of pitfalls: Voting is not harm reduction. For
wire-pulling, intriguing, flat- electoralists making the “voting
tering, lying, cheating; in fact, is harm reduction” argument, this
chicanery of every description, seems like a case of, “I saw this
whereby the political aspirant term and assumed that I knew
can achieve success. [..] Time what it meant.” In the essay V oting
and time again the people were Isn’t Harm Reduction, An Indige-
foolish enough to trust, believe, nous Perspective, published on In-
and support with their last far- digenous Action’s website, the au-
thing aspiring politicians, only thor or authors actually spend less
to find themselves betrayed and time discussing the issue of harm
cheated. reduction, instead using this myth
[...] to transition into a discussion on
24
how voting has and continues to gage with substances on their own
be a tool of colonialism via the co- terms rather than taking a prohi-
erced assimilation of Indigenous bitionist or carceral approach. It’s
peoples in the “United States” (al- about acknowledging that some
though this is true elsewhere too). folks may not desire to live a “so-
Still, in the beginning of the essay ber” lifestyle, allowing them to
they point this out: seek help on their own terms if
they desire it. It neither glorifies
We don’t dismiss the reality that,
nor shames substance use. Giv-
on the scale of U.S. settler colo-
ing intravenous drug users clean
nial violence, even the slightest
syringes to cut down on disease
degree of harm can mean life or
transmission and giving naloxone
death for those most vulnerable.
to opioid users to prevent death
What we assert here is that the
from overdose are harm reduction
entire notion of “voting as harm
initiatives.
reduction” obscures and perpet-
uates settler-colonial violence,
Consider how this applies to vot-
there is nothing “less harmful”
ing. Does it?
about it, and there are more ef-
fective ways to intervene in its
Would it be helpful to conceptu-
violences.
alize participation in Politics as
[...]
an addiction? Probably not. You
[V ]oting can never be a survival
might be able to make a case for
strategy under colonial rule. It’s
that sort of thinking, but I won’t;
a strategy of defeat and victim-
personally I think Goldman’s de-
hood that protracts the suffering
scription of it being akin to a fe-
and historical harm induced by
tish (in the anthropological sense)
ongoing settler colonialism. And
is more apt. But what would harm
while the harm reduction senti-
reduction look like in this case?
ment may be sincere, even hard
Would it look like coercing people
won marginal reforms gained
into voting and participating in
through popular support can
politics, or—following the spirit
be just as easily reversed by the
of the harm reduction coinage—
stroke of a politician’s pen. If
would “harm reduction” in politics
voting is the democratic partic-
not mean attempting to minimize
ipation in our own oppression,
political participation—mean-
voting as harm reduction is a
ing, minimize reliance on system
politics that keeps us at the mer-
that stands against the proletari-
cy of our oppressors.
at, against any real climate action,
“Harm reduction” was actually a against any real change? Is repli-
term coined by—and subsequent- cating these patterns of coercion
ly stolen from—drug abuse advo- “harm reduction,” even if you want
cates. Harm reduction is about not to filter harm reduction through
punishing addicts for their addic- a political lens? This framing is
tions, and allowing people to en- flawed, but it seems like a more
25
apt conclusion to be drawn from ting even more compromise, and
it would lead towards an approach if Your Candidate wins, then you
of mutual aid instead of diverting might get some services or infra-
resources that could provide direct structure or what you asked for.
aid to those in need to campaign- You might also get nothing be-
ing. Would you not rather distrib- cause the candidate gets bought
ute food than campaign stickers? out by those with capital. If Your
Candidate does not get elect-
7/ WE CAN DO BETTER, AND ed, all that time and money has
MORE been thrown away completely and
But can’t we do both? you, again, get nothing. Less than
nothing--all the money put into
They say to vote to make it better paying campaigners and advertis-
in the “short term;” but the “short ing is lost, and that’s money and
term” is also the “long term” if any- time that could have directly fed
one ever points out that we could and clothed families, gotten peo-
be making things better in the ple housed, filled in potholes, or
here and now instead of dumping worked towards whatever else it is
all the effort and resources into you wanted fixed. Why is it such
campaigning. The meanings of blasphemy to point out that the
short term and long term are con- winning move might just be to
stantly shifting in their meanings. avoid the game altogether? Your
Voting is a necessary evil because Candidate needs you, but you need
it “helps” people in the short term them less than you think.
by providing them with social ser-
vices once Your Candidate is in And so you may think that, well,
office. But we need to donate to we can focus on both local proj-
campaigns and put all this money ects and campaigning. But so
into campaigning costs and adver- much gets shoved to the side when
tising and shit like that instead of election season comes in favor of
giving the money and resources getting people out and voting. It’s
directly to the people who need like a sick sporting event. (To be
them because we gotta think about honest I’m afraid of DSA’s current
the “long term.” The goalposts are mutual aid projects in a way—
always changing here. will these projects be abandoned
as soon as the next Bernie comes
You’re asking people to gamble along and they feel the need to
with their lives. devote all the energy they could
be giving to actual people to an-
The gamble is this: throw your other doomed campaign instead?
current resources into a campaign How many times does this have
hoping for a bigger return-a re- to happen before hop off the ham-
turn that will always include com- ster wheel? ) Notice how in these
promise—ally yourself with dirty conversations too how the “short
money if you want to win, beget- term” is always shifting. Why pro-
26
vide people with resources now Further Reading:
when we might get a shot at more
This essay was meant to be a suc-
later? But the “more” might nev-
cinct and basic summary on some
er come. And we don’t have time
anti-electoral stances. Two of the
to wait. Climate collapse does not
essays mentioned here are from
loom over us—it’s already begun.
Anarchism and Other Essays
We must eschew Politics in favor
by Emma Goldman (very easily
of ourselves if we want to survive.
found as a .pdf or audiobook; in-
The state knows that it’s not need-
dividual essays are hosted on both
ed—watch how mutual aid proj-
Marxists.org and the Anarchist
ects are targeted by authorities as
Library (theanarchistlibrary.org)),
soon as they begin to build some-
a good introduction to anarchism
thing real. You may be inclined to
to the unacquainted. All of the fol-
argue that voting is stifled, so does
lowing should be available online:
it not also pose a threat to the es-
tablishment? Not really. Within ·A narchists Do Not Vote, They
the establishment, there’s a push Fight!Black Phoenix Anarchist
and pull between assimilation and Union
direct genocide. As Indigenous · Do Anarchists Vote In State
Action Media put it: Elections? ziq
Historic acts of voter suppres- · The Ballot HumbugLucy
sion appear to contradict the Parsons
strategy of assimilation, after · The Ballot or The Bullet?
all, if white settler politicians Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin
desired so much for Indigenous · The Party’ s Over CrimethInc
Peoples to become citizens, why
· Voting Is Not Harm
then would they actively dis-
Reduction, which can be found
enfranchise them at the same
on Indigenous Action Media’s
time? This is the underlying con-
website (www.indigenousaction.
tradiction of colonialism in the
org)
U.S. that has been articulated as
the “Indian Problem,” or more
bluntly, the question of annihi-
lation or assimilation?
Overinvestment in Politics is
learned helplessness. “We need
better leadership.” Sigh and go
to doing nothing. Instead, think
about where the resources allotted
by politicians come from, and real-
ize that these resources are provid-
ed by people,not lines on paper. We
can do better—and it starts with
divestment from politics.
27
Nothing could be further from the

ANTI-POLITICS truth.
AND THE POLICE This is why those of us with an an-
Noche
ti-political position say we are for
Politics itself is the policing of free-
anarchy: freedom is a word with too
dom & unfreedom. Freedom, as we
much American patriotic baggage.
are taught in American schools, is
not freedom itself.
For the purposes of this piece, I will
refer to the condition of territorial
It is a doctored variation sold to us.
statelessness (which is akin to free-
It helps maintainthe assumption
dom) as anarchy.
that the perpetuation of American
politics is itself tied to perpetuation
But then what is anti-politics? Is
of freedom. (“Vote or don’t com-
it the inversion of politics? (Many
plain!”)
radicals see radical politics as a
28
grand inversion of bourgeois poli- to form a social peace to ensure
tics: now the people are in power. A the perpetuation of the current ra-
formulation I disagree with, which cial regime of Capital. To keep the
I’ll get to later.) money flowing.
Anti-politics is the active negation The perfection of politics can be

and consequent abolition of poli- found in democracy: class-collab-
tics. oration at its finest. As the writers
of Dixie Be Damned put it, “White
But what is politics? With the de- supremacy’s greatest ally in this
velopment of ancient Greek democ- country has been democracy, not
racy, the polis (where the term pol- fascism.” But the anti-blackness of
itics emerges from) denoted a body the racial regime of Capital is more
of citizens who have a direct say in than just a formalized White su-
local governance. Politics is that premacy.
which concerns the polis. And what
is citizenship? Adherence to and To be an anarchist then is to not
recognition by the State. A dividing only be against the State but also
of the population. against politics.
But not all citizens under the cur- Because as @nkoyenkoyenkoye puts
rent racial regime of Capital are it,
equals.
“Politics is police.”
In Black Marxism, Robinson shows
this is by historical design. Black The police as protectors of the po-
people have been held outside the litical order physically embody the
realm of the State’s formal equality law: the bureaucratic wing of the
since the inception of capitalism State. The formalization of domi-
and continue to be so even after the nance.
supposed end of chattel slavery.
The latest wave of Black revolt and
I stand against anti-blackness and the riots it has sparked have had an
the marker of race, which always explicit target: the police and their
also means standing against po- power deployed to protect property
licing. The State is the wing of di- against Black life. But some bristle
rect anti-black domination and the at this target.
police its foot soldiers. Thus I am
against the State even in its demo- I recall back in 2014 a white com-
cratic forms. munist asking in a reading group,
“when will people rise up against
Politics is that which is used to me- indirect domination and not just
diate between contentious bodies. direct domination?” Which is Eu-
A perpetuation of antagonistic con- ro-Marxist speech for, “why are
tradictions, rarely their resolution: Black people fighting the police and
29
not the wage-relation?” As though Rioters are indeed often the disen-
the two are not linked. franchised, but the riot is not an
act for integration into the racial
A now common refrain by the rad- regime but an act against it. Riot-
ical milieu is that the recent riots ers are not trying to communicate
worked. That they have produced a program to be fulfilled by the
results that would have not oc- State as much as acting directly and
curred otherwise. This is true. The openly against the present state of
history of revolt in the so-called things. Otherwise a peaceful march
United States of America is a testi- ending with a stage and a list of
mony to this. speakers is in order.
But the instrumentalization of the Thus the conclusion of an anti-po-

riot as a thing that ‘works’ misun- lice (as well as anti-carceral) posi-
derstands the riot. This is projected tion is anti-politics.
onto the riot after the fact. It is an
attempt to make the riot political. Some say we need another politics. I
To make it legible to State power. say the world of politics has had its
day and those against it are the ones
Though the riot, as expressed by who will carry the day to freedom.
racialized proles, is essentially an-
ti-political. The white racist riot is For anarchy & communism.
fascism in its extra-legal street mode
(see the Tulsa Race Riot & the Zoot
Suit Riots).
30
The current state of the world – a
powerlines & the suspension of time:
state of extraction and exploitation
reflections on temporal perceptions maintained through state-sanc-
G. ROWAN MCK tioned violence and a variety of
Driving on the interstate through subconscious, internalized tactics
the mountains of rural Virginia, I and beliefs – relies upon physical
always end up looking at the pow- infrastructure to continue its exis-
erlines that cut their way across tence (like how the powerline pro-
the landscape – paths clear cut vides the transmission of energy
through the trees, making way for for the continuance of this world’s
a the progression of the long sus- activities that are fundamentally
pended overhead lines, funneling high-energy consumption). How-
energy into the variety of plac- ever this very “practical” and eas-
es where the settler presence has ily traceable “maintenance of exis-
been condensed. I search for them, tence” that happens in the physical
mentally cataloguing their vari- landscape also involves maintain-
ety of shapes. The powerline, as a ing the existence of the ways in
physical structure, might attract which we move through the world,
the attention of many “different” the ways that we conceive of the
types of people – from “environ- world, space, and time, and the
mental activists,” architects, and maintenance of restrictions placed
engineers, to “spatial theorists” and upon imagining what is possible.
“anti-civ” anarchists. Its presence is
uncanny. Its structure automatical- To talk about time and its spa-
ly prompts interrogation. The elec- tial manifestations in the way
tric buzz you hear overhead as you that I want to, I will include an
stand beneath the suspended lines, excerpt from Erin Huang’s 2020
amongst the plants that common- book Urban Horror: Neoliberal
ly grow in “wasteland” clear cut Post-Socialism and the Limits of
areas, is unsettling and intriguing. Visibility. In this book, Huang in-
It is my hope for this article to in- terrogates the temporal logics that
terrogate these feelings of unease show up in cinema in a “post-so-
and to complicate some common- cialist” world, and also highlights
ly accepted understandings of time the logic of linear development
and its spatial manifestations. This that both socialism and capitalism
article is not in any way the most have operated under in their tan-
well researched argument you will gible historical realities. She also
encounter, however I hope to illu- discusses how if we look close-
minate some of my own reflections ly, the current “age” of neoliberal
on the broader world, through the capitalism did not emerge strict-
structure of the powerline, in the ly from capitalism, but from the
hopes that whoever reads this may historical geopolitical relationship
find it useful. between capitalism and socialism.
31
Here is her quote where she ques- rus is the end.” Or “they’re taking
tions the logic of the word “post” people away in vans this is where it
itself: all starts.” To go back to a classic,
“Although the post- is com- Desert, these all mirror the way
monly associated with a mode in which the ecological crisis has
of anticipation that evokes a dif- been talked about: “this generation
ferent future path, the temporal is the one to deal with the crisis
logic embedded in the rhetoric of the planet,” or “this is the be-
of post-socialism is paradoxical- ginning of the end.” Within all of
ly hyphenated and reverts back these statements, we see a continu-
to socialism. The anticipation is ing logic of postponing the future
built upon a mode of regression, – it is always the “beginning of the
where the future is conceptual- end.” Events currently happening
ized through indeterminable re- around people are constantly con-
lations with a former system that ceptualized through referencing an
is neither alive nor dead. Rath- “imagined past,” much as Huang
er than describing a new era to talked about. “Trump’s fascism” is
come, the post- conjoins a sus- outlined through referencing the
pended future with a reimagined historical development of fascism
past. The result is a new mode in other locations – which, while
of temporality characterized as being a useful approach to an ex-
a perpetually extended present tent, simply reimagines America’s
that renders the traditional cat- past and reifies dominantly ac-
egories of past, present, and fu- cepted logics of time.
ture obsolete” (pages 14-15).
The present moment is ever sus-
Apologies to my old teachers for pended, much like the lines be-
the extremely long block quote tween the transmission towers that
that they would probably tell me cut across Virginia’s mountains.
to cut up or paraphrase. But let’s The future has a definable feature,
pick apart what Huang is saying either dystopian or hopeful, but
here regarding the structures of the wreckage or the rebuilding
time, while relating it specifically is pushed to the future in many
to the spatiality of powerlines. common perceptions. The idea of
“this is where the end begins” is
I would like to remind you all of constantly strengthened, to no real
some recurring themes from the tangible effect. To believe that this
past few months you may be aware present moment is “the beginning
of. For example, the idea that of the end” is to disregard the fact
“2020 is the end of the world.” Or that it can only be viewed as such if
“Trump is making America de- you accept the start of this current
scend into fascism – here’s an out- world as the “beginning point” of
line of why that is!” Or “coronavi- significant history. “THIS is where
32
it starts” – whether that be Ameri- this spatial destruction is constant-
can fascism, ecological crisis, etc. is ly causing harm primarily towards
the logic of suspension, a logic that Black and Indigenous communi-
reveals a subconscious acceptance ties, through industrial infrastruc-
that “the end times” did not in fact ture, energy projects, and the other
begin with colonization, but must spatial patterns that these infra-
begin now, because “history,” as structures produce. The powerline
dominant ideology assumes, be- reveals that the “post” in “post-in-
gan with colonization. The linear dustrial” does not herald a bright
progression-centered conception future, it simply refers back to the
of time is embedded within these industrial – a deepening continua-
ideas, as is their refusal to accept tion of the patterns caused by col-
that rather than politics and con- onization and racial capitalism. It
texts being suspended “moments” reveals that the postponed “future”
in time, they are locations of prac- moment of dystopia is in fact both
tices, tactics, and technologies. If the present and the past, and that
“antifascism” is a set of tactics and the lines between them are not
not a temporal moment, “fascism” straightforward, but constantly re-
cannot be conceived of as a “mo- fer back to one another.
ment” that is ever-present on the
horizon. However the powerline reveals an
extremely obvious, yet surprisingly
In her book, Huang also talks a lot subtle reminder: that the struc-
about the concept of “horror,” “un- tures of oppression in this world,
ease,” and the “uncanny.” “Horror,” and the structure of time itself, al-
as an umbrella term for these feel- ways possess a physical form. And
ings, is socially produced. Capi- if something has a tangible face,
talism produces specific types of it can be attacked. If there is no
fears – ever-present ones, existen- “real” concept of future, what can
tial ones, and inexplicable ones. At be done immediately?
the beginning, I mentioned how
the structure of the powerline –
its presence, its location, its effect,
the sounds it produces – produces Shout out to the people whose writ-
these feelings, at least in myself. ing, conversation, or teaching has in-
The powerline reveals the faults in fluenced the formation of ideas that
commonly accepted temporal nar- led to me writing this and everything
ratives – ones of “future,” and ones I write or think: Adela Amaral, Sibel
of “past.” The powerline reveals the Zandi-Sayek, Estelle Ellison, Mads
spatial destruction that has been FE, Negar Razavi, Erin Huang,
incredibly normalized in an occu- and of course all my haters for al-
pied landscape, its presence being ways motivating me to keep trying
commonplace – and the fact that to think more critically.
33
TREASON TO THE US
IS
LOYALTY TO LIBERATION
ture and they have issued orders to
T O M Y shoot on sight and shoot to kill.
P E O P Assata
L Shakur
E I am a Black revolutionary, and, by
definition, that makes me a part of
Black brothers, Black sisters, I want
the Black Liberation Army. The
you to know that I love you and I
pigs have used their newspapers
hope that somewhere in your hearts
and TVs to paint the Black Liber-
you have love for me. My name is
ation Army as vicious, brutal, mad-
Assata Shakur (slave name Joanne
dog criminals. They have called us
Chesimard), and I am a revolution-
gangsters and gun molls and have
ary. A Black revolutionary. By that
compared us to such characters as
I mean that I have declared war on
john dillinger and ma barker. It
all forces that have raped our wom-
should be clear, it must be clear to
en, castrated our men, and kept our
anyone who can think, see, or hear,
babies empty-bellied.
that we are the victims. The victims
and not the criminals.
I have declared war on the rich who
prosper on our poverty, the politi-
It should also be clear to us by now
cians who lie to us with smiling
who the real criminals are. Nixon
faces, and all the mindless, heart-
and his crime partners have mur-
less robots who protect them and
dered hundreds of Third World
their property.
brothers and sisters in Vietnam,
Cambodia, Mozambique, Angola,
I am a Black revolutionary, and, as
and South Africa. As was proved
such, I am a victim of all the wrath,
by Watergate, the top law enforce-
hatred, and slander that amerikkka
ment officials in this country are a
is capable of. Like all other Black
lying bunch of criminals. The pres-
revolutionaries, amerikkka is trying
ident, two attorney generals, the
to lynch me.
head of the fbi, the head of the cia,
and half the white house staff have
I am a Black revolutionary wom-
been implicated in the Watergate
an, and because of this I have been
crimes.
charged with and accused of every
alleged crime in which a woman
They call us murderers, but we did
was believed to have participated.
not murder over two hundred fifty
The alleged crimes in which only
unarmed Black men, women, and
men were supposedly involved,
children, or wound thousands of
I have been accused of planning.
others in the riots they provoked
They have plastered pictures al-
during the sixties. The rulers of this
leged to be me in post offices, air-
country have always considered
ports, hotels, police cars, subways,
their property more important than
banks, television, and newspapers.
our lives. They call us murderers,
They have offered over fifty thou-
but we were not responsible for the
sand dollars in rewards for my cap-
twenty-eight brother inmates and
35
nine hostages murdered at attica. jersey state trooper) was kidnapped
They call us murderers, but we did on April 2, 1969, from our Black
not murder and wound over thirty community and held on one mil-
unarmed Black students at Jackson lion dollars’ ransom in the New
State—or Southern State, either. York Panther 21 conspiracy case.
He was acquitted on May 13, 1971,
They call us murderers, but we did along with all the others, of 156
not murder Martin Luther King, counts of conspiracy by a jury that
Jr., Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, took less than two hours to delib-
Malcolm X, George Jackson, Nat erate. Brother Squires was inno-
Turner, James Chaney, and count- cent. Yet he was kidnapped from
less others. We did not murder, by his community and family. Over
shooting in the back, sixteen-year- two years of his life was stolen, but
old Rita Lloyd, eleven-year-old they call us kidnappers. We did not
Rickie Bodden, or ten-year-old kidnap the thousands of Brothers
Clifford Glover. They call us mur- and Sisters held captive in amerik-
derers, but we do not control or kka’s concentration camps. Ninety
enforce a system of racism and op- percent of the prison population
pression that systematically mur- in this country are Black and Third
ders Black and Third World people. World people who can afford nei-
Although Black people supposedly ther bail nor lawyers.
comprise about fifteen percent of
the total amerikkkan population, They call us thieves and bandits.
at least sixty percent of murder vic- They say we steal. But it was not we
tims are Black. For every pig that is who stole millions of Black people
killed in the so-called line of duty, from the continent of Africa. We
there are at least fifty Black people were robbed of our language, of our
murdered by the police. Gods, of our culture, of our human
dignity, of our labor, and of our
Black life expectancy is much low- lives. They call us thieves, yet it is
er than white and they do their not we who rip off billions of dol-
best to kill us before we are even lars every year through tax evasions,
born. We are burned alive in fire- illegal price fixing, embezzlement,
trap tenements. Our brothers and consumer fraud, bribes, kickbacks,
sisters OD daily from heroin and and swindles. They call us bandits,
methadone. Our babies die from yet every time most Black people
lead poisoning. Millions of Black pick up our paychecks we are being
people have died as a result of in- robbed. Every time we walk into a
decent medical care. This is murder. store in our neighborhood we are
But they have got the gall to call us being held up. And every time we
murderers. pay our rent the landlord sticks a
gun into our ribs.
They call us kidnappers, yet Broth-
er Clark Squires (who is accused, They call us thieves, but we did not
along with me, of murdering a new rob and murder millions of Indi-
36
ans by ripping off their homeland, the Black Revolution. The pigs also
then call ourselves pioneers. They try to give the impression that five
call us bandits, but it is not we who or ten guerrillas are responsible for
are robbing Africa, Asia, and Latin every revolutionary action carried
America of their natural resourc- out in amerika. That is nonsense.
es and freedom while the people That is absurd. Black revolution-
who live there are sick and starving. aries do not drop from the moon.
The rulers of this country and their We are created by our conditions.
flunkies have committed some of Shaped by our oppression. We are
the most brutal, vicious crimes in being manufactured in droves in
history. They are the bandits. They the ghetto streets, places like atti-
are the murderers. And they should ca, san quentin, bedford hills, leav-
be treated as such. These maniacs enworth, and sing sing. They are
are not fit to judge me, Clark, or turning out thousands of us. Many
any other Black person on trial in jobless Black veterans and wel-
amerikkka. Black people should fare mothers are joining our ranks.
and, inevitably, must determine our Brothers and sisters from all walks
destinies. of life, who are tired of suffering
passively, make up the BLA.
Every revolution in history has
been accomplished by actions, al- There is, and always will be, until
though words are necessary. We every Black man, woman, and child
must create shields that protect us is free, a Black Liberation Army.
and spears that penetrate our ene- The main function of the Black
mies. Black people must learn how Liberation Army at this time is to
to struggle by struggling. We must create good examples, to struggle
learn by our mistakes. for Black freedom, and to prepare
for the future. We must defend
I want to apologize to you, my ourselves and let no one disrespect
Black brothers and sisters, for being us. We must gain our liberation by
on the new jersey turnpike. I should any means necessary.
have known better. The turnpike is
a checkpoint where Black people It is our duty to fight for our
are stopped, searched, harassed, and freedom.
assaulted. Revolutionaries must
never be in too much of a hurry or It is our duty to win.
make careless decisions. He who
runs when the sun is sleeping will We must love each other and
stumble many times. support each other.
Every time a Black Freedom Fight- We have nothing to lose but our
er is murdered or captured, the pigs chains.
try to create the impression that
they have quashed the movement,
destroyed our forces, and put down
37
ner that is appropriate for Karen
ON THE BLACK LEADERSHIP and Ethan, not Jamal and Keisha.
AND OTHER WHITE MYTHS
We Still Outside Collective It is worthwhile to note that black
We republish this essay from Ill Will people, themselves, never refer to
Editions. “Ill Will received this any mythical black leadership. This
communiqué from some black friends is because we know, full and well,
in New York. We have republished it that all of our leaders, since Mar-
exactly as received. -IWE” tin and Malcolm, have been killed.
Even our potential leaders, like
What they call, “the black leader- Trayvon and Tamir, are gunned
ship,” does not exist. Let’s be se- down before they can share with us
rious: what they are talking about their vision. What’s more, if they
is nothing more than a figment of are not brutally murdered, then
the white liberal imagination. That they are locked away forever with
is, if these so-called black leaders Sundiata, Mutulu, and Mumia.
even exist at all, then they can only That is, we know that if you speak
be found shucking and jiving a with truth and move against op-
“woke” white person’s head. pression, then the only way to
avoid the pig’s bullet or peniten-
Isn’t interesting how progressive tiary, the modern-day cracker’s
whites seem to have a direct line whip or plantation, is to go on the
of communication with black run like Assata Olugbala Shakur!
leaders, while everyone else in the In fact, any black person that says
street fails to suffer from the same otherwise should be exposed for
delusional schizophrenia? What’s what he or she is: a poverty-pimp!
all the more odd is that the voices
that they hear from these magical After half of century without a
negroes always manage say the figurehead in the front, the black
same things: “Everyone should youth has shown the whole coun-
peacefully protest on the side- try that they are more than capa-
walk, because unmediated black ble of setting their own path and
rage makes others uncomfortable.” directing their own iniatives. They
“Don’t strike back at that cop even have demonstrated to us a dyna-
if he wants to kill you and every- mism that can never be reduced
one you love.” “I know the man- to a homogenous mass following
ager follows black kids from aisle any one authoritative voice. Para-
to aisle, but still, his store shouldn’t doxically, it is the entire spectrum
be looted.” In other words, the of the black revolt in the streets
message relayed from the sounds that can be identified as leaderless
on repeat in a white liberal’s head “leaders,” since they have shown
is to end the black revolt and con- everyone else what it means to free
duct civil disobedience in a man- yourself.
38
To paraphase James Baldwin’s still adolescent and overcome their
apt observation, we black people white guilt with a fist, a stone, and
are more aware of the inner work- a Molotov cocktail.
ings of our pale-face antagonists
than they are of themselves. Con- – We Still Outside
sequently, the diagnosis of woke Collective
whitey’s psychological condition is
quite simple: this James Earl Jones, June 4, 2020
Carl Winslow, or Rafiki from the
Lion King voice, which bellows off P.S. Fuck 12!
the walls of their skull, is a defense
mechanism against their inability
to completely repress their own
white superiority complex. What’s
also abundantly clear is that the
only way to fully work through
this hang up is to gain even a small
percent of the courage of a black
39
The appearance of Covid-19
SANITARY CRISIS OR during the beginning of 2020 is
CRISIS OF CIVILIZATION? the materialization of the entire
BRIEF POINTS ON COVID-19 AND project that’s been created in fic-
CAPITALISM
tion. Or at least is its transition to
Circle of Esoteric Communists the material world from an imag-
(translated by post.xcx)
inative project. However, no mea-
This was translated during the sure adopted by the various states
beginning of the pandemic. It was on a global scale come even close
never publicly shared but here we share to what fiction had us used to.
it to, hopefully, foster a connection with
anarchists in so-called Latin America The fictional space that is cinema
and to make their insights available on had us lying in the distance, both
this side of the border. real and imaginary, to enter a dif-
ferent symbolic world. Distance
“It is well-known that the Jews that we also understand as a pro-
were forbidden to look into the ductive division so as not to con-
future. The Torah and the prayers fuse what happens on the screen
instructed them, by contrast, in with what happens on this side,
remembrance. This disenchanted avoiding falling into the paranoia
those who fell prey to the future, of what happens there is true, but
who sought advice from the at least has an index of veracity.
soothsayers. For that reason the Now this distance is cancelled out
future did not, however, turn into by the anticipation that cinema
a homogenous and empty time for gives to reality.
the Jews. For in it every second
was the narrow gate, through The spectacular tone that the ca-
which the Messiah could enter.” tastrophe takes from its media
- Walter Benjamin, “On background ends up generating
the Concept of History” the idea that every catastrophe
must be traced back to what the
The film universe has bombarded cultural industries have generated
us to death with its disaster mov- and that, therefore, any disaster
ies: zombies, aliens, nuclear mon- must be spectacularly narrated and
sters, sharknados, meteors, viruses, represented. If Frederic Jameson
atomic bombs, and and everything stated that “it is easier to imagine
else you can think of that can af- the end of the world than the end
fect and compromise existence to of capitalism”, the current situa-
the point of nullifying it or dimin- tion that opens with the Covid-19
ishing it to a minimum. Humani- pandemic requires a reformulation
ty, as a condition of the human as of the sentence. With all the pub-
well as of the animal, has prepared, lic commentaries in digital and an-
at least symbolically, for its disap- alog spaces, as well as media cov-
pearance since time immemorial. erage, and on the other hand the
deficient preventative measures
40
that have been taken throughout and to the devaluation of human
the globe, it is evident that if the labor, a health crisis is never exclu-
current crisis of capitalism is of sively of these characteristics be-
a level never seen before, the end cause what is revealed is precisely
of the world imagined form such the conditions and contradictions
apotheosized. of the mode of production, its so-
cial administration, and the forms
But it is not by chance that this of socialization that result from it.
desired end of the world is so apo-
theosized or that it is exclusively In this sense, the global circulation
the product of the culture industry. of the Covid-19 comes to express
In psychoanalytical terms, fanta- simultaneously the circulation of
sies about the end of the world are goods that precedes it. There is
projections of the individual’s own plenty of historical background:
collapse, due to a splitting of the the bubonic plague from Asia to
self, the result of schizoid process- Europe, the flu and smallpox from
es that find in the modern capital- the “Old World” to the “New
ist mode of production a breeding World”, the Spanish flu at the be-
ground capable of projecting and ginning of the 20th century are the
introjecting both self-repressive epidemiological corollary of the
and narcissistic overflow measures. global expansion of capitalism. A
The game of double positions, op- microorganism is more lethal than
posed and contradictory, around a device, but this does not fall into
the same issue is the constitutive a health issue but into the dimen-
logic of our impoverished subjec- sion of political economy and its
tivity. forms of administration and man-
agement.
Returning to the distance between
cinematic representation and what The qualitative leap of the mod-
we could call “everyday life”, it is ern era is to have transformed the
that there is a particular feature concept of war from a military
that is possible to detect in this perspective to a socio-economic
distance between fiction and reali- operation. “War is the continua-
ty - in the case of the specific exis- tion of politics by other means,”
tence of the latter in a uniform and noted Karl von Clausewitz in the
totalizing way - and that is that in 19th century, which is manifest-
the films there is an element that ed in states of catastrophe such
acts as a factor that is not weight- as the one we are currently expe-
ed: the productivity of human la- riencing. Furthermore, we must
bor with its contradictions on the consider that a good part of this
material plane within the modern author’s theoretical intervention
capitalist world. took place when there was, in fact,
a distinction between militias and
In a world devoted to productivi- civil society, a division that has si-
ty, to the self-valorization of value multaneously been pulverized to
41
the point of homogenizing society rect physical repression, but rather
with a permanent war. through the introduction of terror
into the psyche of each individu-
Society is increasingly seen as a al, which through the exploitation
war machine, which unleashes a of fears that ultimately originate
series of forces that are expressed in childish fantasies, allows the
in the idea of the internal enemy, configuration of a schizoid subjec-
whose settlement in the territories tivity, which in its ambivalence is
usually coincides with the system- that which is most apt to receive
atic expansion of the logic of capi- and transmit orders while at the
tal into every sphere of life that has same time rejecting them for not
been called “neoliberalism”. In this allowing their own subjectivity to
way, all political conflict is imme- be built up and unleashed.
diately played out in the economic
field, which becomes the real con- Self-confinement to private space
tinuation of the war, beyond the is the internalization of financial
spectacle of so-called internation- speculation, with its global stock
al politics. The economy would be market collapse and a gradual
nothing but the continuation of collapse of neoliberal econom-
politics by other means. ic policies. The social distancing
propagated these days as a precau-
This state of permanent economic tionary measure is the internalized
warfare, since it cannot be resolved expression of subjective-economic
externally as an armed conflict, is reification. The policy of self-care
resolved internally by each body as is the consummation of the nar-
a state of internal warfare against cissistic policy of the commodity
everything that hinders the re- society because it is carried out
production of capital. This is not individually and not collectively,
limited to the measures of surveil- unleashing individual forces that
lance and control - in which Ag- at no point intersect with com-
amben emphasizes for example -, munity forces. Social narcissism is
but extends to each individual in propagated but not an alternative
particular, to an internalization of way of life that opposes what this
the conflict in each individual not type of narcissism makes possible.
only as a productive agent/con-
sumer/citizen, but fundamental- What is expressed and sought in
ly in his experience of the world, private space is the capacity of each
which passes to live as something individual not to become bored.
immediately hostile, something Series, films, books, online activi-
that can only be resolved through ties, videoconferences, etc., end up
the split, as much of itself as of its becoming a palliative to the possi-
own experience. bility of boredom. In other words,
in the face of a health crisis, what
We are in the presence of a terror is important is not to fall into the
that is not imposed through di- void of boredom. What an empty,
42
alienated, impoverished humanity Yes, let us confess it: the poverty of
we have been touched by! our experience is not only poor in
private experiences, but in those of
An entirely new poverty has fall- humanity in general. It is a kind of
en upon us as the enormous de- new barbarism.
velopment of productive forces
and technology encourages, and There will be no shortage of those
imagines, travel in time and space who profess that the Covid-19
to remote parts of the universe. pandemic was spread by inter-
And the reverse of that poverty national tourism. They are partly
is the suffocating wealth of ideas right in thinking so. The problem
that came about among the peo- that stands out in this formulation
ple - or rather that came about - as is that tourism itself and the way
astrology and the wisdom of yoga, it has developed in the last seventy
Christian Science and chiroman- years is a product of the systemic
cy, vegetarianism and Gnosticism, poverty in which we find ourselves.
scholasticism and spiritism were Why is tourism being developed?
revived. Since the material con- Mainly to escape from the dai-
tradiction between real scarcity ly life of the world. Nobody goes
and artificial scarcity has not been as a tourist to a world they know
resolved, the remaining solution because everything is familiar to
is “spiritual enrichment”, which them. To be a tourist is to expose
makes this contradiction more tol- oneself in a mediated way to other
erable. worlds, looking for the experience
of what is already known to be
This poverty can no longer be char- reinforced by checking that what
acterized from the point of view one is looking for as a novelty is
of material resources or from the what was promised beforehand.
point of view of income distribu-
tion, because the impoverishment In this sense, tourism is the op-
of experience is of a qualitative or- posite of adventure, an experience
der. The poverty of our experience anticipated and closed by the cir-
is but a part of the great poverty culation of goods on a global scale.
that has taken on a new face, as Where novelty is sought, there is
exact and profiled as that of the only the same mercantile world
beggars in the Middle Ages. What from which one tries to escape,
is the value of the goods of educa- reinforcing the condition of a
tion if experience does not unite us fractured individuality, crumbled
to them? And where does it lead but not liquidated, which can only
to simulate or overlap it, is some- express itself as a nihilism hostile
thing that the dreadful hybrid to the world. The fact that many
mesh of styles and worldviews of infected people have not isolated
the last century has shown us so themselves from the rest of the
clearly that we should consider it population is a symptom of a gen-
honorable to confess our poverty. eralized death drive and is in no
43
way an individual but a collective There are those on the left today
expression. who are calling for an old-fash-
ioned protective state, even in
There will also be those who end their tactics of the classic labor
up raising the flag of the “human movement with certain calls for a
virus” or “virus capitalism”, which General Strike against Covid-19.
turn out to be as irrational as what Calls for a stronger state “to pro-
provokes this reaction. In this tect us” have also reappeared,
sense, it is possible to establish a something we have seen in Chile
standardization between “every since the October revolt and its
man for himself ” that some states prolongation as a continuing social
have developed to the hygienic outbreak. Here the General Strike
machinery of the totalitarianisms cannot be a voluntary call for the
of the 20th century, which point- simple fact that, given the pan-
ed to a forced disappearance of a orama, it is articulated as a health
good part of the population. The measure and that it falls, whether
only response that has been taken we like it or not, into a measure
as effective against the health cri- of control. Had we thought about
sis of the Covid-19 is the repres- this regressive possibility?
sion and control of the population,
social techniques widely known It is incredible to know that the
and spread for decades. limits of the modern capitalist
civilizing process have led us once
In spite of this, the productive/ again to think that the state is the
consuming reserve army keeps only possible salvation in a world
moving because production cannot in growing decomposition. We
be stopped and someone - always believe that what is crumbling in
Another, never I - must be sacri- some parts of the Western world is
ficed. All states have preferred to the neo-liberal state. It is a matter
save the economy rather than save of seeing how people have reacted
the people. This is valid for both to Covid-19 in Spain, Italy, and
the present and the future, because Chile, three countries that are geo-
although there are already clear graphically distant but have insti-
signs of the economic crisis drag- tutional structures that are close to
ging on at least since 2008, as the each other. Since there are health
days or months go by it will be- systems that are very close to each
come more acute if it is not saved other, what remains is repression
from now on. It will be a tomor- and control. Nothing has been
row of people in unemployment preventive but only repressive.
or in growing debt to the banks,
which will be enriched again by The decomposing neo-liberal state,
the poverty of the masses and by with all the nuances that may ex-
the bailouts that all the states have ist between the different particular
given them. states, makes it clear that there is
no possibility of salvation in the
44
face of an emergency such as the exist as such but only as a specific
one we are experiencing today if historical articulation. There is no
it is not through control and re- essential humanity, but there is the
pression. This principle is basic be- possibility of transforming it, as
cause where the market has been history shows. There is nowhere to
unleashed as a second power of the rescue the essence of “the human”
first order in terms of managing again.
society, it tends to act through the
exponential deployment of the au- This reinventive possibility is what
tomatic subject so well known and we call “communism”.
which now reaches a point where,
with all its power and arrogance, it Circle of Esoteric Communists
decides more than ever on people’s Santiago, Chile, March 2020
lives.
It is not surprising, therefore, that

the life of each and every one of us
is worth less than the production
that must be saved at all costs. The
neoliberal state was not put in cri-
sis by mass action or by a microor-
ganism, but by itself by privileging
its administrative role in market
life. The guardian punched him-
self in the face, leaving himself out
of the picture. But he will return
strengthened and prepared to be
another, to return to being himself.
The only way out of the health

crisis is to question the limits and
projections of the civilizing proj-
ect in which we are developing
and which manifests its crisis in a
rampant way with thousands, and
possibly millions, of deaths all over
the planet from a specific episode.
This humanity is condemned to
death and to a pseudo-life, so it is
necessary that a new type be ges-
tated that learns and incorporates
in the negative what modern-capi-
talist civilization gave it. It is not a
matter of finding the true meaning
of humanity because it does not
45
Notes From the Rockford Rebellion
R E A D I N G True Leap Press
SUGGESTIONS The Divided God: A Letter to Hong
What follows is a list of books, es- Kong
says, and other projects that helps Chuang
sharpen our analysis and reminds us Social Contagion: Microbiological
on the need to not just act, but to re- Class War in China
flect and think. We hope that some Chuang
of these will help you too and that
you can talk to your homies about it. Hostis: A Short Introduction to the
Politics of Cruelty
Links to many of these works and
groups are available on our website. Projects
Afro-Abolitionists of the Americas
Books
Anarchy in the Burbs
Afro-Pessimism: An Introduction
Multiple Authors Abolish the UC
In the Wake: On Blackness and Being Confrontaciones

Christina Sharpe Cuadernos de Negacion
Carceral Capitalism Indigenous Action
Jackie Wang
True Leap Press
Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of
Blackness Lausan
Simone Brown Chuang
Blessed is the Flame Black Seed
Serafinski
Warrior Up
Let’s Destroy Work, Let’s Destroy the
Economy Pocheando Distro
Alfredo M. Bonanno
Podcasts
Ediciones Ineditas Anthology
Noche and friends
Indigenous Action
Anarchy Comics Working Class History
Essays Films
The Anarchy of Colored Girls Born in Flames (1983)
Assembled in a Riotous Manner The Thick-Walled Room (1956)
Saidiyata Hartman
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
We Demand Nothing
Johann Kaspar A Page of Madness (1926)
Macario (1960)
46
CONTRIBUTORS
Authors of Original Texts
g rowan mck (@gypsyyrm on ig) lives in virginia where they sew clothes,
make zines, and hate on acoustic instruments. she does fake research on
music and the geographies of neoliberal capitalism, always interested in
how the spaces around us construct our lives, perpetuate ideologies, and
how people navigate and weaponize spatial nightmares. as a strong pro-
ponent of the powers of autotune on the subconscious, you can find her
listening to music with stray cats in “abandoned” locations.
Luci! is a psyop created to make communists look bad. [editor’s note: this
is an obvious joke.]
Tanze/Vatt is a fungus that grows in boreal forests
Authors of Re-Published Texts
El Chavo I promised more info about myself, but I lied.
Abolish the UC Skip class. Cause ruckus. | A fan for the flames. |
inquiries: abolishtheUC (at) protonmail | disorientation.guide
Monsieur Dupont is the collective name of the authors responsible for

Nihilist Communism and other works.
Assatta Shakur is a former member of the Black Liberation Army

(BLA), a target of COINTELPRO, and a fugitive currently living in
Cuba.
We Still Outside Collective is a group of Black friends in New York

City
Noche is a pissed-off chicano prole with a keyboard in the Los Angeles

Eastside. His personal blog is puraacracia.club
Círculo de Comunistas Esotéricos is a group of esoteric communists
We want to also thank Fire to the Prisons for inspiring this project!
47
A publication for those who hate this world and actively seek its abolition,
for those prefer to fully live, with both love and hatred in our hearts.
Please share this with your friends, comrades, enemies, and

everyone inbetween!
Follow the rest of this project on twitter and instagram

(@HATERSCAFE)
haters.noblogs.org
SH R S

Haters Magazine

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Haters Magazine

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

8 T T

seven reasons to hate

ISSUE 1 - FALL 2020

an anarchist journal from north texas

Revolutionaries are often the most surprised at the outbreak of revolution. We

ical landscape. Consisting of mostly liberal activists or self-righteous party mem-

We believe that the

10 this is the definition of class hatred To that end, we

38 on the black leadership and other A revolution is a social

TONY MCDADE - MERCI MACK

BRAYLA STONE - SHAKI PETERS

We want to take a moment to

MONIKA DIAMOND - BREE BLACK

TATIANA HALL - REM’MIE FELLS

OLUWATOYIN SALAU - NINA POP

...AND ALL THOSE WHOSE NAMES WE

knowledge and its production. Some of

So, would I recommend younger

These are values upon which

5/ VOTING IS NOT DIRECT Direct action is about asserting

Nothing could be further from the

Anti-politics is the active negation The perfection of politics can be

But the instrumentalization of the Thus the conclusion of an anti-po-

It is not surprising, therefore, that

The only way out of the health

In the Wake: On Blackness and Being Confrontaciones

Anarchy Comics Working Class History

Tanze/Vatt is a fungus that grows in boreal forests

Authors of Re-Published Texts

El Chavo I promised more info about myself, but I lied.

Monsieur Dupont is the collective name of the authors responsible for

Assatta Shakur is a former member of the Black Liberation Army

We Still Outside Collective is a group of Black friends in New York

Noche is a pissed-off chicano prole with a keyboard in the Los Angeles

Círculo de Comunistas Esotéricos is a group of esoteric communists

Please share this with your friends, comrades, enemies, and

Follow the rest of this project on twitter and instagram

You might also like