> It is exciting to have a chance to participate in this List
> about Chomsky. Although I consider myself an "unhyphenated" anarchist,
> I still find I have a lot of affinity for anarchosyndicalism. For a time I
> was a member of the IWW in the early 1990s and still consider myself on
> friendly terms with the wobblies.
>
>         Chomsky's visibility is a challenge to statist hegemony and his
> academic success is an inspiration to all radical intellectuals and
> scientists. Anarchists, in particular, now have to question whether we REALLY
> need to hide in the shadows. Perhaps ,we too, should show the same caliber of
> courage as Chomsky.
>
>         I am sure Chomsky would demure at the above statement. But there is
> more than a grain of truth that hits home for me. I am curious about what
> others may think.
>
>                         Howard


[this is a long posting and I apologize; however, it details an
experience I had with an attempt at anarchosyndicalism in Dallas three
years ago]

        Howard, I completely agree with you. I have known a lot of people
personally that have flirted with the idea of anarchism and have read
articles discussing the topic, but until I read Chomsky I never thought
it a viable alternative. This is even taking into account an experience
I had with a group of self-proclaimed "anarchosyndicalists" in 1994 in
Dallas, Texas:
        I was surprised when they used the term "anarchosyndicalist" because,
up until that point, I had only heard of "anarchism" [without any
hyphenated add-ons] and wasn't sure what the hell they were talking
about. They were mostly anglo-american men and women between the ages of
19 and 28. I had known some of the people back in high school, where
they had always had the reputation of being with the "wrong crowd" and
for drug experimentation. Most of the people involved considered
themselves a part of the Dallas hardcore/punk scene and, in fact, some
played in very political-inspired punk bands, much like the Dead
Kennedys or Crass. I won't lie: these were mostly people whose parents
were from well-to-do neighborhoods and who could have easily lived a
life of suburban comfort and luxury. However, as a collective effort,
they had purchased some space in a building fairly close to downtown
Dallas, in an area known for its restaraunts and dance clubs. They
called their space "The Durutti Column" after the famous Spanish
Anarchist Buenaventura Durutti and the "column" of troops he fought with
in the Spanish Civil War. The Durutti Column was a reading
lounge/perfromance space/art gallery/tattoo shop; one of the members of
the collective was a tattoo artist and skilled body piercer. This, along
with many benefit shows featuring local and national punk bands, largely
financed the place. There were old torn couches laying around next to
cheap wooden racks of black and white fanzines, leaflets, and political
pamphlets. There were two small adjoining rooms to the main performance
space: one was a room in which records and t-shirts were sold; in the
other, different herbs and plants relevant to holistic medicine
practices were offered. Black and white pictures of Durutti and many of
the famous anarchists throughout history, most of them Spanish, adorned
the walls. And because the place was in such a highly-visible area, a
lot of young people would spend their time there talking or getting
drunk. Several Food Not Bombs benefit shows were played in the oft-times
cramped quarters.
        An article about the Durutti Column was written in
_The_Dallas_Observer_ in which it was claimed that the initial monetary
funding had come from an inheritance one of the collective's members
received. I was fairly surprised and overwhelmed by the place, as it
seemed a place I might expect to encounter either in San Francisco or
back in the 1960's...but not in Dallas. Also, the knowledge that the
particpants seemed to have of historical anarchism was impressive. It
was a knowledge that one might not think they would posses had one seen
them in their black and olive-green army surplus outfits and occasional
dyed hair.
        After about 4 months the Durutti Column closed shop. I actually helped
two of the "core" members move furniture and such to a nearby house.
This was one week after a fairly large turn-out for a punk show that was
partly to benefit Food Not Bombs. I asked one of the members why no one
had showed up to help them move out when, one week before, there were
such a large amount of people enjoying the music. He seemed a little
bitter and said something to the effect that people only wanted to reap
the benefits of labor without actually involving themselves in the labor
itself. The Durutti Column had been opened to the public, and, because
of that, attracted a large number of people who had no desire to be
anarchists whatsoever, yet who wanted to watch the shows there and use
the place as a trendy hang-out with their friends. The Durutti Column
had become just another night-spot for alternative rock fans and was
patronized as such, many patrons not realizing that there were a
dedicated core of selfless people hard at work behind the scenes of
everything they enjoyed. This made me think of the professed working
class values that many members talked about...yet when I conjured up
images of the working class, I saw auto workers and foundrymen, sweating
and working hard for little pay. Here were artists, musicians, and
writers, dressed outlandishly, reflecting more of a Sex Pistols-inspired
counterculture than your average AFL-CIO member would. In fact, had an
"average worker" seen one of the members of the Durutti Column, s/he
might have been turned off immediately, hounded by MTV-inspired
stereotypes of clueless young people looking for drugs and attention.
And one of the Column members might have seen, in the worker's
countenance, a respresentation of the bourgoise, herdlike American
culture they so despised. Both are stereotypes and unfairly hurt both
sides. Nevertheless, there is a gap there that I think needs to be dealt
with.
        Anyway, there was one member of the Durutti Column, the oldest at 28,
whose knowledge of anarchism and accomplished method of verbal
expression had naturally seemed to place him in position as the
"leader." His house was the one to which all of the Durutti Column
furniture was transferred to. And I'm happy to report that his house
became the new "Durutti Column" for about 6 more months, though everyone
instead began calling it the "Glass House." In fact, I went to the Glass
House moreso than to the Durutti Column. This place was surreal: it was
dead center in a decaying urban neighborhood known for its high crime
rate, yet it became the new collective. Bands were still invited from as
far away as Scotland -- and they showed up and played in the living
room!!! One of the bedrooms was a library, and the kitchen was open to
all, though there was one cabinet that said the food therein was
reserved for three of the "core" members that lived continuously at the
house. A friend of mine interviewed several of the members for a zine
she was doing -- they seemed to be greatly influenced by Natve Americans
and many Native Americans' beliefs about the land and its resources
being owned by all and not just one. They also pointed to Bakunin and
Noam Chomsky as great influences as well. They said they engaged in
direct action campaigns but wouldn't elaborate...maybe they were afraid
we were Feds or something. I never became friends with any of the Column
members, but they impressed the hell out of me and made me want to study
anarchism seriously, even if their effort was ultimatley a hsort term
one (in Dallas).
        I found it inspiring that young people could feel so strongly about
something and let it motivate them to the point of actually expressing
their desires concretely; i.e. by DOING something. They seemed to frown
upon those who "sat in their rooms and wrote essays about anarchism
their whole lives" and instead said they preferred to get the resources
together to make their ideals become tangible substance. The Durutti
Column and the Glass House are no longer there, but whether that means
that the "experiment" was  a failure or not I cannot judge. The people
that came together to briefly create such an exciting alternative are
still out there, possibly involved in other similar projects elsewhere.
I can see where they might have gone wrong, or how I would have done
things differently, but for me to critique them for actually
accomplishing something while I theorize and postulate would seem
inadequate and hypocritical. Despite what my experience with the Durutti
Column might seem to indicate, I am more positive than ever about the
prospects of anarchism. To have witnessed an anarchist collective in
action amidst the oil-and-big-business backdrop of Dallas was inspiring
in ways that are hard to explain. Trial and error are the only ways to
build successfully, and I am sure that the Durutti Column presents a
situation to learn and improve upon for success.

                                --brian
                                mailto:[log in to unmask]

--
"If it is correct, as I believe it is, that a fundamental element of
human nature is the need for creative work or creative inquiry, for free
creation without the arbitrary limiting effects of coercive
institutions, then of course it will follow that a decent society should
maximize the possibilities for this fundamental human characteristic to
be realized. Now, a federated, decentralized system of free associations
incorporating economic as well as social institutions would be what I
refer to as anarcho-syndicalism. And it seems to me that it is the
appropriate form of social organization for an advanced technological
society, in which human beings do not have to be forced into the
position of tools, of cogs in a machine. " --Noam Chomsky