Anti-Authoritarian Traditions: Activism and Media – Commodities, Conflict, and Cooperation

Photo Credit: Mutual Aid; The Authority Smashing Hour: Radical Report

Zach Yandrich

As an artist, I find the thought of commodifying my art to be perturbing. When art is free, it will naturally flow into the possession of more people than it would have otherwise, affecting a larger and more diverse audience. When this happens, art will then start to inspire more people to do their own art and to collaborate, creating even more change in turn. Within inspiration comes change, as inspiration inevitably leads to innovation, and new eras are born as the planet’s problems are solved by collaborative collectives of individual artists around the world.

Capitalism prevents the world from moving forward—not just by exploiting the working and poor classes, along with every other categorization of “othering” that occurs within capitalism, but also by staunching innovative thinking through the suppression of truly collaborative and meaningful art. Artistic thought is critical thought, as an artist is not only self-critical but also critical of others, and their critical thinking is sharpened through practice. Art is in everything, and everyone deserves to be involved if they wish. A person should not be forced to choose between the commodification of their art, and eating.

Commodification of art is problematic to say the least, but at least at times you can draw narratives from it. Though monopolies of industry and art exist, sometimes gold falls through, allowing others to dream of freedom in turn.

Authority is nothing but arbitrary rules imposed on individuals by others, and enforced by violence.

Our world is visibly falling apart. Donald Trump (#FDT), the “reality” TV show personality is now president of the biggest military and colonizing power in known history, and is rolling with the attitude of a Mussolini character, and what looks like a version of Hitler’s plan of a unified National Identity, under National-Socialist and authoritarian control. With #FDT in mind, Hitler detained and eradicated anyone outside of his ideal “National Identity” of Aryan, white-supremacist cogs, working within the nuclear-family ideal for the betterment of the “white race.“

Being under a Hitleresque regime under #FDT, for any moderate length of time, would spell more disaster for the entirety of the world. #FDT and his regime can seize the machinery of the ever-exploitative capitalist system and use it to perpetrate even more explicit exploitation than is currently happening. Exploitation that will allow a true National-Socialist State to rise for the “benefit” of one select group of people, who will be raised to a new, official, privileged class of duty and conformity.

Though people of the pale-melanin persuasion might think that because of their creamy complexion that they will be able to escape exploitation, they are wrong. No matter the system that exists, as long as there is hierarchy there is exploitation. The political elite, the corporatists, the politicians, the corporations are the individuals and the entities that hold power. They only care about themselves and will be able to exert even more power with every new actor that presents themselves in the chair of U.S. president, grinding ever more conformity and rigidity into those that the regime finds ideal—and death, destruction, and misery for everyone else.

The only way to resist tyranny of any kind is through community participation in collective decision making and defense. Through the participation in art, the recording of art, we can build a new world from the wreckage of our past.

Music: Soul Bender

Tom Morello

16473434_10155055063787193_4278520232889038382_n — Banned in the gud’ul’US’r’A

16473785_10155055063797193_7218815803744773979_n — Union Town: Not Available

On January 31st, I discovered that Tom Morello’s official music on Youtube became unavailable to be watched in the U.S. Within another day, his official music had been fully removed from Youtube. Morello is a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), an explicitly anti-capitalist labor union, a former member of Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, self-titled as “The Nightwatchman” singing labor and more folksy “class war anthems“, and a current member of the super group, Prophets of Rage.

What Morello said in this interview with Bill Maher might be part of the reason why his monetized music videos have been banned… Pretty much, Tom Morello doesn’t like #FDT and would never give #FDT permission to use any of his music, nor would he lie down to #FDT if the occasion arose, nor should he.

Art that lasts is meaningful art. In many ways, Rage Against the Machine got lucky, finding their signature sound when they did. However, what separates RATM from other bands, is the intent behind their art. When you listen to them, you can feel, touch, see their rage, their anger and their intention. Like other amazingly talented musicians and artists, the members got lucky by circumstance, and their notoriety and hard work resulted in them gaining capital, money. What they also gained though, is a worldwide platform from which they can effect change using the social capital that they had gained when they were raised to celebrity status.

Fortunately for RATM, what truly matters with art, with music, is the will to effect change, not for only oneself, but for everyone. Making art for the sake of making art. I believe that every piece of art on this list is speaking to something, trying to make for radical change in our crazy world. This is how we last and survive, this is how we prosper and thrive, by creating art that changes each other.

The Nightwatchman

Chumbawamba

The charming Irish punk rockers and creators of Tubthumping brought us an updated, English take on the Italian classic Bella Ciao. I personally love this song, it contains so much power. Hearing it, you can feel the weight of the song, you can picture the Italian partisans hugging their loved ones before they left to fight, and it makes me want to honor their sacrifices the best that I can.

Chumbawamba – Bella Ciao

Ralph Chaplin

Another Wobbly, or member of the IWW, Ralph Chaplin penned Solidarity Forever and put it to the tune of John Brown’s Body (aka Battle Hymn of the Republic).

In the pantheon of American labor history there is a very special place for Ralph Chaplin, the man and his work. As the poet laureate of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), he is probably remembered best for giving organized labor its fighting theme song, Solidarity Forever. --- Bruce Le Roy

Chaplin spent several years in jail in 1917-23, as he was considered a radical. Under the 1917 Espionage Act he was held without trial or charge initially along with 165 other Wobblies in 1918, and then again with 10,000 other radicals across the U.S. in 1919.

Additionally, Chaplin is credited with the “Sabo-cat” design. A black cat with an arching back, claws extended, and hissing, according to Chaplin this “‘Sab Cat’ was supposed to symbolize the ‘slow down’ as a means of ‘striking on the job’.” It is now a famous symbol used by the labor movement in general, however the IWW still holds Sabo-Kitty close.

Tom Morello’s cover of Solidarity Forever

1516710866-quote-it-seems-the-most-logical-thing-in-the-world-to-believe-that-the-natural-resources-of-ralph-chaplin-78-97-68 — Credit: Ralph Chaplin

Utah Philips

tumblr_lhjnj4ABNZ1qfat8co1_400 — Photo Credit: Utah Phillips

This career hobo was an IWW organizer and singer, songwriter, and spoken word artist who focused on class consciousness and labor ballads. Philips couldn’t stand the music industry, and advocated for “Making a Living, not a Killing” and tried to demonetize his music as much as possible.

Here is an audio clip from Utah Phillips on what he had learned about politics and volunteerism over the course of his life, and from his mentor Ammon Hennessy.

Additionally:
Utah Phillips & Ani DiFranco – – The Most Dangerous Woman
Utah Phillips & Ani DiFranco – – Direct Action (free speech fights)
Utah Phillips covers Joe Hill’s Pie in the Sky and The Preacher and the Slave
Utah Phillips – Hallelujah I’m A Bum
Utah Phillips – We Have Fed You All A Thousand Years

HGS Savage Family

Savage Fam is an Indigenous hip-hop group that makes Native and resistance- focused music, and is explicit about their messages and their rage.

Savage Fam: Truth be Told

[Verse 1]
I know the masses journey’d, to see us dead
They watched the massacre, a mother carried her child to safety
They went after her
Killed and cut her breasts off
A warrior sings his death song
They pray for us the moment they die, therefore they blessed us
Hear the message, in the memories of them
And never forget their presence, yes remember the dead
Remember they live inside us, each and every one of me
Reachin’ for the sun that’s just me showin’ my love
No retreat and never run, somefin’ brought me to life
And said take the option to fight over just watching ‘em die
So we constantly try to live life as sacred as that
Until the day that we die, until the day that we back
Connect the rez to the past present, future, here and then
And the music in the wind that’s the proof the spirit lives
That’s the proof that we exist here, live in the flesh
With a pride that exist inside us to fight ‘til the death
—–

Wahwahtay Benais

An Indigenous solo hip-hop artist, Wahwahtay Benais delivers beautiful poetry on his life, his people, their collective experiences, and the effects of colonization and the systematic subjugation on his peoples.

I find the juxtaposition of this amazing Indigenous lyricist using the Dixie Chicks as a hook to be absolutely brilliant, artistically and otherwise. Speaking of the extensive abuses and atrocities that have been perpetrated against the Indigenous peoples of the Americas since the first interactions with Europeans, to use a hook that was performed by three white women asking for it all to stop, it’s all just too much. It’s gut-wrenchingly haunting and beautiful. It’s inspiring and humbling.

Woody Guthrie

With class consciousness foremost in his mind, an unapologetic anti-fascist, Woody Guthrie joined the Army during World War II just for the chance to fight the Nazis. During his tour overseas Guthrie wrote All You Fascists Bound To Lose, and “composed hundreds of [other] anti-Hitler, pro-war, and historic ballads to rally the troops.“

Woody Guthrie – Tear the Fascists Down
Woody Guthrie – This Machine Kills Fascists
Woody Guthrie – All You Fascists Bound To Lose

woody-guthrie-header-642x362 — Credit: Woody Guthrie #2

Ryan Harvey

Of the Riot Folk! Collective and Firebrand Records with partner Tom Morello, Ryan Harvey makes radical music with a class and economic analysis and focus. Coming from a “no-profit” perspective, with an emphasis on mutual aid, Harvey makes super-catchy folksy music in the traditions of Woody Guthrie, calling out corruption and systemic exploitation, completely unapologetic.

You got the laws all written for the rich and the white
Trick the rest of those fools into the army to fight
In a dead end game, each war the same
You got a land and a people and a market to claim
You got a woman beaten down everywhere that you look
In the courts, in the jails, in the schools and the books
Got the the TV set, sexism’s on it
You got a country full of men taught to fall for that shit
Yeah and i do too, I’m not blaming you
But I’m trying to unlearn what they said was true
Yeah and i need help, I’m not afraid to say it
It’s a subliminal tool sometimes it’s hard to see it
— Ryan Harvey – Peace, Justice, And Anarchy

Body Count

Body Count is a heavy-metal band that was formed by hip-hop artist Ice-T. Recently, they released “No Lives Matter” with spoken word pieces by Ice-T, and their message is powerful. No one matters to the rulers and the elite. No lives matter, except to generate power for the individuals who control capital.

Don’t fall for the bait and switch
Racism is real, but not it
They fuck whoever can’t fight back
But now we gotta change all that
The people have had enough
Right now, it’s them against us
This shit is ugly to the core
When it comes to the poor
No lives matter
— Body Count – No Lives Matter

Animated Films:
Lessons on Organizing

What most people think of as “entertainment” is actually just commodified art. Using art for the sake of money, power. Despite this, some artists still fight, using their art to instill lessons in us all.

It’s fun for me to now to look back on the entertainment, the art that I consumed as a child, while using the lens of political economy. There were so many lessons that I was never truly conscious of learning at the time. Looking back, I can see lessons on the absolute necessity of individual growth and self-expression, collective organizing, mutual-aid, creativity, imagination, bravery, acceptance of “others,” valuing friendship, comradeship, and loyalty, and resistance against all forms of oppression. To look beyond oneself and what one knows, and to outside perspectives in order to gain new perspectives. To look beyond oneself and to participate in my community. The rejection of authority in favor of self and community self-determination. The importance of self-defense against those that would do you and your community harm, regardless of the danger that one might face.

In looking forward, looking for a way out, we not only have to use our imaginations to see the future that we want, but we also have to look back and use our imaginations to find the lessons in history. Through art, history survives, true history survives, no matter the current ruling narrative.

E Pluribus Unum; or Together As One

An American Tail is an epic allegorical children’s cartoon made in 1986 by Don Bluth. Over the course of the film, Fievel Mousekewitz , a Jewish-Russian mouse refugee from Russia travels with his family to America, the land without “cats” (predators), and “where the streets are made of cheese.” Nearly to America, Fievel is fatefully swept off of the ship on which he was crossing the Atlantic, and in quick order: was auctioned off to a child-labor sweatshop, had his name changed to an “American sounding name,” became a street urchin, was greatly disappointed and shocked at the appearance of cats, was almost eaten several times, and was imprisoned for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

American Tail screens (4) — Credit: An American Tail

With the threat of predators to both the rich and the poor being a daily reality, the mice of New York came together by having a rally to decide what to do about the menaces that were breathing down their necks and killing them daily. Fievel, a child-mouse, introduced the idea of creating a machine that resembled childhood stories of “The Mouse of Minsk,” a monster-mouse that is “as tall as a tree, with a tail a mile long,” according to Fievel’s papa.

The mice of New York organized, mice went where they were needed and where their skills lay, and the Monster of Minsk was born on an abandoned pier to a mass of individuals who had been put into the position of having to defend themselves physically from their abusers.

American Tail screens (1) b 2 — Credit: An American Tail

A plan was concocted, the Mouse of Minsk was constructed, and the cats appeared on the docks ahead of schedule. During the rally to hold off the cats from the warehouse where the their trap was waiting to launch, Fievel reveals to the other mice that Warren T. Rat is actually a cat, with the insinuation that Warren T. Rat was a predator in friends clothing.

An American Tail 2 (2) — Credit: An American Tail

At the planned time, the Mouse of Minsk was released and the mice shot fireworks at the cats, directly defending themselves from the violence of the predators. Cornered at the end of the pier, the Mouse of Minsk forced the collected cats to jump into the ocean, where they found themselves being lifted into a ship bound for Hong Kong. In the words of Warren T. Rat (the main antagonist), “…Don’t worry gentlemen (other cats), there are plenty of mice in Hong Kong…. Hey, I wonder how you say, ‘Trust me’ in Chinese.”

Throughout this film, it becomes clear to the watcher that the only way that the mice are going to survive the terror of the cats is for them to band themselves together, in support of each other. Only together, as a collective unit, could the mice defend themselves from the violence that was being visited upon them. It is unfortunate that the mice didn’t eradicate the predators from the face of the earth, seeing as they were on their way to exploit the mice of Hong Kong in the end.

Tend to the Individual, the Collective Prospers

A Bug's Life (5) — Photo Credit: A Bug’s Life

In 1998, Pixar put out the film A Bug’s Life, a snappy animated film following Flik, an ant with a lot of imagination and initiative, and the courage to use them for the benefit of his community. At the opening of the film, it is revealed that Flik’s hive pays a yearly tax of food to the traveling grasshoppers, brutish flying bugs who are probably 15 times the size of an ant. Their size and brutality being their power, the grasshoppers terrorize the ants, claiming to protect them, for a price.

When a food crisis (financial crisis) takes place, Hopper, the antagonist in this film, is briefly challenged by Flik, which results in Hopper having Flik beaten and demanding another food tax be leveraged against the hive before the rainy season.

When some of Hopper’s minions later expressed desire to not go back to the hive to exact the tax, the following conversation ensues:

Hopper: Guys, order another round… because we’re stayin’ here! What was I thinking? Going back to Ant Island. I mean, we just got here, and we have more than enough food to get us through the winter. Right? Why go back?
Hopper: But there was that ant that stood up to me…
Minion 1: Yeah, but we can forget about him!
Minion 2: Yeah, it was just one ant. One ant! Yeah, you’re right! It’s just one ant!
Minion 3: Yeah, boss. They’re puny!
Hopper: Hmm, puny. Say, let’s pretend this grain is a puny little ant.
*Throws grain at minion 1*
Hopper: Did that hurt?
Minion 1: Nope.
Hopper: Well, how ’bout this one?
*Throws grain at minion 2*
Minion 2: Are you kiddin’?
Hopper: Well, how ’bout this? *Dumps container of grain on minions*
*Buries minions*
Hopper: You let one ant stand up to us… then they all might stand up. Those puny little ants outnumber us 100 to one. And if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life! It’s not about food. It’s about keeping those ants in line. That’s why we’re going back!

A Bug's Life 20 (4) — Credit: A Bug’s Life

Bullies, authoritarians, tyrants, and fascists love to intimidate and brutalize those that are individually weaker than themselves so as to maintain their collected power and privilege. Hopper understands that the hive is collectively stronger than himself and his minions, and has to ensure that the ants don’t realize this fact by crushing any and all dissent as it happens.

A Bug's Life 2017 0 (10) — Photo Credit: A Bug’s Life

Through a series of events, the hive learns some lessons. They learn that conformity for collectivism’s sake is limiting and regressive. They learn that individuality for individuality’s sake is limiting and dangerous to everyone. They learn that ingenuity and courage, the ability to dream of a better reality, are all positive attributes and actions.

Above all though, they learn that through acceptance of the individual within the collective, celebrating the differences between themselves rather than the similarities, that they were able to come together as a solid wall of resistance. Their actions of defending themselves collectively resulted in the “protectors,” the grasshoppers, being driven away and the ants free to work among themselves for the betterment of themselves.

Workers Unite:
An Injury To One, Is An Injury To All

Netflix 2017 03 12 17 45 17 — Photo Credit: Antz

Don’t make my mistake kid.
Don’t follow orders your whole life.
Think for yourself.
—Barbatus

The class-conscious animated film Antz was released in 1998 by DreamWorks Animation. Antz is set in a society with a military dictatorship led by a monarchy, of ants, with clear class lines set at birth. Everyone in the colony has their destiny predetermined with roles assigned, regardless of the individual’s desires and abilities.

Despite the struggling antagonist “Z” being branded his whole life as a “worker,” he accidentally spends a night dancing with the colony’s “Princess Bala,” who was on a rebellious outing in the dirty world of the workers. Later, in an ill-advised bid to get Princess Bala’s attention, Z switches places with his close brother “Weaver,” a soldier ant. Unfortunately, Z’s brief stint in the military took a dramatic twist when the colony’s military commander, General Mandible, convinces the queen of the colony to send an attack a nearby termite hive. Z is immediately thrust into combat, and despite almost dying repeatedly, is the only survivor of either army.

Being celebrated as a military hero to the workers, Z is exposed to the royal court to be a mere worker ant, and not a soldier ant at all. Despite his participation in the previous battle, Z stepping out of his assigned role sent everyone into a panic. This leads to Z’s life being threatened, he inadvertently takes Princess Bala as a hostage, and then he accidentally escapes down the garbage chute.

With only death as a prospect back at the colony, Z decides to strike out for the fabled “Insectopia”, a supposed land of plenty, without hives, and armies, and hierarchy. Faced with trekking back to the colony by herself or sticking with Z, Bala chooses to accompany Z to find Insectopia.

As Z and Bala trek across the jungle of outside, Weaver and friend Azteca begin Agitating and Educating the other workers, with the rest of the colony raising the story of Z to an ideal of resistance against workplace exploitation.

Weaver: [Z]’s a worker. He used to dig around here.
Ant #1: A worker? That’s impossible. A worker can’t do anything, except work.
Ant #2: Yeah. It’s not like we got a choice.
Azteca: We do have a choice. Uh, I mean, look at Z. He decided he wanted something, and he went for it.
Weaver: He’s not alone. I used to be a soldier, and I switched places with him.
Ant #3: Wait a second. You’re telling me… I don’t have to be here?
Ant #4: We’ve got a choice?
Ant #5: The authorities don’t want you to know, but we don’t have to work on the tunnel anymore.
Ant #6: It’s the workers who control the means of production.
Ant #7: If Z don’t dig, I don’t dig.
Foreman: People, what is this? An encounter group? Let’s get back to work.
Ant #8: [to the Foreman] Why?
Ant #7: *running past*…on the tunnel anymore! This guy, Z– he’s leading the revolution!
Foreman: I’ll get back to you… *runs away*

With tensions quickly rising in the tunnels, General Mandible sends out a retrieval squad to rescue Princess Bala. The retrieval squad managed to miss Z, and instead was only able to capture the princess, who was returned home and promptly imprisoned by the General whose long-term plans were about to be realized.

As a placation, General Mandible satiates the worker’s anger by announcing a labor-free day of celebration for the opening of the expansion tunnels that the colony had been laboring on for an extensive period of time. Unfortunately for the workers, the General’s long-term plans involved a long-term solution for his belief that workers were genetically sub-par. Unbeknownst to the workers, the General had been instructing the workers to dig the expansion directly towards a pond.

As most of the workers gathered for their “day of celebration” in the main chamber of the colony, the General’s loyal troops leveraged pebbles into the exits, blocking every way out. Fortunately for the colony, Z managed to get the princess out of imprisonment and into the chamber with everyone else, just as the pebbles were dropped into place.

Not quite able to stop the workers from breaking through to the pond above, water began to flood the chamber, washing ants into the circular tsunami as the chamber began to fill. Despite the imposed standards of conformity, Z once again showed the power of imagination as he starts directing the collective on how they could save themselves. At Z’s urging, the ants began to swarm upwards, creating a massive tower that reached to the very top of the chamber. The chain-tower that the ants were able to coordinate between themselves saved the colony and ruined General Mandible’s plans of class-genocide.

An individual has to be themselves, but without the support of community, the individual is nothing.

Reality:
Creating Our Mind’s Image

While participating in art is important, it isn’t always tangible. It’s usually abstract and doesn’t have any body. It doesn’t march with us physically, but it marches with us in our imaginations. It inspires us. It tells us that we can go forward, no matter what, but truly, how do we move forward? I’ve spent most of my life trying to find new and better ways of propelling myself onward, trying to abandon everything that drags me, us, everything that drags our world down.

Fortunately, I’ve finally reached a point where I’ve actually found some answers to some questions that I’ve asked as a poor white kid, who grew up in the woods outside of a rural megacity of 13,000 with a church every couple of blocks. A backward hick town that was ruled in the iron fists of anti-union and neoliberal, theological authoritarians that sapped my community dry with their austerity measures and corporatism.

The rulers of my town allowed WalMart to move into a decent working economy in the mid-’90s, and within five years or so, everyone’s problems were magically magnified as jobs became harder to come by, and the town started flooding every year. These greedy shits gave WalMart permission to plop its sprawling death-knell in historic flood plains, which in turn displaces water every year into what are now officially the poor sections of town.

Within another five years, if you didn’t already have a well paying, long-term job, the work that could be found was through friends and family, or temp (scab) agencies. Or WalMart. Most everything else had moved, or had been driven into the ground by WalMart, the store that satisfies all of your needs, as long as you don’t mind destroying yourself and your community while you shop for convenience’s sake.

This happened, all while the “leaders of the community” gaslit the residents to believe that it was the fault of whatever darker skinned person that was most convenient.

It’s time to use the lessons that we’ve learned from the art of our pasts, and create a new world from what see.

To Punch or Not: It Isn’t A Question

By making it socially acceptable to punch Nazis on sight, we can start the process of creating a widespread, daily culture of Anti-Fascism. Actively working in our lives to prevent fascism from creeping in. Complacency and allowing fascists platforms has resulted in the bizarre modern climate of 2017, and by punching Nazis we can help create a better world, one punch at a time.

Industrial Workers of the World

13876546_10154454822412193_4045818056327066930_n — Credit: IWW Emblem

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) is an apolitical, non-hierarchical, anti-capitalist, anti-boss, anti-police & military, abolitionist, volunteer run Labor Union (LU) with the one paid position in the entire union being the elected Secretary of the General Membership Branch, and was established in 1905. We focus on goal oriented campaigns and workplace organizing of every type, as well as education surrounding effective organizing methods.

One of the main beliefs of the IWW is that everyone who lives under capitalism is exploited by capitalism. Whether you are houseless and jobless, a sex worker, a student, a house-worker, a prisoner, formerly imprisoned, an agricultural laborer, a care-worker, a childcare provider, a house-partner, a stay-at-home parent. No matter who you are, you interact with capitalism, and as capitalism is ultimately only exploitative, it means that you are only negatively affected by capitalism. This is what makes the One Big Union, what bonds us all together as a class. We are all exploited because of the system that we live under, but with class and industrial solidarity mixed with imagination, rooted in history, we can build something new and better.

The IWW breathes to help society evolve to be more egalitarian, and the body encourages everyone to be involved, even if they are not Redcard-carrying Wobblies, they are still fellow workers and deserve class solidarity. Above all else, the IWW is an active feeling of resistance to the violence of authority, a sense of self-ownership, and it welcomes all with the seed of liberty in their hearts.

Historically, the IWW has been through a compendium of books’s worth of fights, actions, lawsuits, class warfare, persecution, murder, wrongful imprisonment, deportation, slaughter, lynchings, mutilation, the “Red Scares,” organizing development, labor concessional victories, and ultimate victory. Victory because the IWW has been through all of this, and yet still exists over a hundred years after its establishment. It exists and is prospering as more and more people reach out to find solutions to what they are realizing are their societal problems.

As a Redcard holder, I’m a tad biased towards the IWW. I spent years looking for groups of like-minded people, kind of wandering around from group to group, looking for people who also wanted a better world, people who were willing to work for that better world, who had a common goal and interest. I found that in my local IWW chapter.

I joined the organization three months before my local chapter was re-founded, and within nine months the Local had managed to grow to over 45 Fellow Workers (FW), who are dues paying members. People see a need for drastic change and alternative structures of organization as a society. As an explicitly anti-capitalist, anti-fascist labor union, the IWW provides a clear message of drastic change and the toolkit to make it so.

14390907_10154612599287193_6621387759948245655_n — Photo Credit: Class Solidarity

Since becoming a Wobbly I have been enabled to become the change that I want. I’m involved in several committees surrounding several different issues, I’ve traveled a bit, and most importantly, I feel as if I am making a difference for once in my life. The IWW has provided me with the support that only an old organization, steeped in sacrifice and hard work, can.

Redneck Revolt

“Back To Our Roots”
–Peter

"To us, the term redneck is a term that signifies a pride in our class as well as a pride in resistance to bosses, politicians, and all those that protect domination and tyranny."
--- Redneck Revolt

Redneck Revolt is an anti-white-supremacy, working-class based, armed organization for “white” people who want to defend their liberty and the liberty of their communities, but want a more egalitarian and conscious organization to work with.

In February 2017, an officer of the right-wing paramilitary 3%’er militia movement relinquished his ranks and left his right-wing organizations after having a life-changing experience with a Muslim’s kindness, and now supports the message and organization of Redneck Revolt.

Photo Credit: Redneck Antifa — Credit: Redneck Antifa

"We’ve been played for fools. In my case, what started as a noble endeavor to ensure my children enjoyed the same constitutional rights I enjoy now has turned into an ugly slugfest of anti-Islamic memes on social media, horror stories about black power groups and the dangers of immigration. Every now and then I see an article about the NSA or the infringement of 2nd amendment rights in the state, but it was quickly overwhelmed by the deluge of propaganda urging us to go and resist people that look or believe differently than we do."
--- Peter

There are Redneck Revolt chapters all across the U.S., and if one isn’t nearby, a group can easily charter a new local, providing outside avenues of resistance against white-supremacy. This in turn will help establish official cultures of resistance to white-supremacy and authoritarianism in general by providing the structures that people seek out for help.

General Defense Committee

Though the IWW does not allow bosses to be a member of the rank-and-file, the General Defense Committee (GDC) of the IWW provides an avenue for everyone, including bosses, to be involved in anti-authoritarian, anti-fascist, anti-white-supremacy, community based organizing and defense. Anyone can join, and the GDC provides structure and support for creating the spaces that the community wants.

The Twin Cities (Minneapolis & St. Paul area of Minnesota) branch of the IWW & and GDC is well established and have done extensive work within their communities with great success.

Twin Cities GDC Bylaws Preamble
Some of the most effective weapons of the master class are to divide the working class according to unevenly shared oppressions of race, sex, gender, sexual attraction, religion, nationality, or language. While the IWW organizes against such divisions in the workplace, the GDC both defends workers in legal trouble, and takes action against such oppressions, in ways that attempt to strategically link anti-oppression struggles to worker organization. As such, we see the GDC’s mission partly as defense of active organized workers already in our union, and partly as outreach to currently under-represented members of the working class.

Similar to Redneck Revolt and the IWW, if there is not a branch located locally, a new branch can be established, with some conditions. A GDC Local has to be started by a group of dues-paying Wobblies, who can then bring non-IWW members into the fold of defensive community organizing.

Affinity Groups

Even when there are not any established organizations in your area, but you want to do your part in protecting your communities, individuals can still be involved. One of the more common practices is simply for a group of like minded people to get together, and start patrolling their communities with the idea of making the streets unsafe for fascists of all stripes.

“In stark contrast to capitalist, fascist, and socialist structures, they function without any need of hierarchy or coercion. Participating in an affinity group can be fulfilling and fun as well as effective.”
 --- CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective

Common goals, common ideals, common causes, common suffering. These are all parts of what can make an affinity group, the result of which can be anywhere from a loose cut group that comes and goes, depending on the day and the directive of the group, to small, tight-knit groups of friends and family, and all kinds of variations in between. The beauty of Affinity groups is that they can be whatever the group decides, no need to lean on preexisting structures that are collapsing around us, and no need to prop up systems any longer than they need to be.

Possibilities

Stepping outside of our comfort zones can be troubling and imagining a world without the threat of violence takes imagination and courage. Walking away from a dependence of others to make decisions for us is terrifying for most, at first. Quickly though, your sense of self-worth and self-ownership rises, which gradually leads to leaving our antipathy behind.

Through art our imaginations rise, leaving us open to more and new possibilities for everything that we do. Art is revolutionary, art is anti-authoritarian. Art is creation and evolution mixed into a believable package that generates wonders out of nothing. Through art, we can take responsibility for our own lives and own our sovereignty, propelling ourselves forward without artificial checks on our advances.