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Introduction
Letters
‘Look, do you see the smoke from Athens?’ by Dave Cunningham
The pitfalls of race consciousness by Dhoruba Bin-Wahad
Obama-Mania (remix) by Jalil Mutaqim
The current financial crisis: capitalism as usual by Troy Cochrane
Eyewitness report from Gaza: riding on fire and a third intifada by Ewa Jasieiwcz, Jabaliya & Beit Hanoun
Palestinian Prisoners Day
Likud, Kadima MK’s submit bill to worsen conditions of Palestinian detainees by IMEMC & Agencies
Palestinian detainees to protest Israeli decisions against them by Saed Bannoura
Women in the struggle
Sexism in the anarchist movement by Angela Beallor
Why protest Vancouver’s 2010 Olympics? by Gord Hill
No Independence by Ciron B. Springfield
Jericho 10/10 march by Ashanti Alston
COINTELPRO tactics of the Boston FBI included widespread spying on campuses and dirty tricks in the black community by Michael Richardson
FMLN Triumphs in Elections in El Salvador, But the Struggle Continues by Nicolas Lopez
Puerto Rico solidarity against repression
Updates
Glossary of terms

Thanks to Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, for agreeing to be our resident artist. His art appears on our cover, as well as below.

And yet, we still stand witness to the largest theft of wealth to hit black America in over a century. What little remains of a domestic manufacturing sector sinks into non-existence, unattended while finance capital is showered with public monies. Thousands of evictions, foreclosures, firings, layoffs, and incarcerations play out hourly in working and poor communities. It seems as though the dream so touted as being realized is being deferred once again.

This ship we’re all on is sinking. The captains and first class passengers are securing their lifeboats. Those of us who have been riding in servants’ quarters and steerage are offered two options: Pray toward the heavens or swim toward the shore. When the promise of a new dawn rings hollow, we need words and deeds of strategy, guidance, and encouragement from hard lessons borne of struggle and study. The voices of POWs, PPs, and PPOCs can give that to us. And this magazine is one venue that will continue to make sure that voice is heard.

Welcome to issue 12 of 4strugglemag. In this issue, we see that continuing the oppression of women within revolutionary movements is not only politically indefensible but marries those movements to failure. We see the successes and continued struggle of people as far removed from each other as Greece, El Salvador and Vancouver. From inside the empire, solidarity can be built with Palestine, even as death rains down on its people. As with the article on historical and dialectical materialism in the previous issue, #12 underscores the importance of understanding the larger economic conditions at play all around us.

We have completed this issue without the usual level of input from our editor, anti-imperialist political prisoner Jaan Laaman. He was being transferred from Massachusetts to Arizona, where he has begun serving a federal sentence. While we’re sorry not to be able to bring you his usual warm and inspirational greeting, we’re glad to have this opportunity to ask you to help us make 4struggle better than ever.

At 4stuggle we continue to get great feedback and contributions from behind the razor wire and cinderblock. We want to build on that. This is the space where hard questions should be asked. Analysis should be developed in these pages. In other words… Speak up! What have you been talking about with others? What have others been talking about with you? What have you studied and read? What do you think? What do you want? What should be done!?

Put it down and send it in!

From here on out, let’s step up our game. It isn’t just right that this modest project grow larger and stronger – it is necessary. The struggle is obviously not yet won but surely not lost. This is our fight to win.

Bryan, karen emily and Sara
Toronto Anarchist Black Cross Federation

P.S. Thanks to the National Jericho Movement in NYC, some articles in this issue give us a sneak peek of their upcoming Freedom Times newspaper, highlighting the 10/10 Jericho anniversary, and renewing a call to “Pick up the work!” Thanks to former PP (and Jericho co-chair) Kazi Toure for his help.

Stay tuned for issue 13 for a special feature: An updated History of the New Afrikan Prison Struggle by Sundiata Acoli

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Hello! I am currently caged under the watchful eye of Corruption Services Canada (CSC). I recently found a summer copy of your magazine at the library here. Being familiar with prison issues and statistics as well as other organizations that support prisoners’ issues, I know Canada fails to be the ‘civilized and democratic’ society it claims if more and more people are getting locked up in little cages. It’s sad to know that Canada and its Tough On Crime advocates are turning this country into another failing system like that of Texas and California. Sin-spinners keep fear alive and more power goes to the ever-growing prison industrial complex. Over time more and more tax dollars will get redirected from social and community programs to feed the hungry maw of the injustice system.

In the December 16, 2005 issue of The Daily (Statcan.ca) it states the decline in the use of provincial parole over a decade had decreased by 76% and 25% federally. Fear and Risk Assessment, a.k.a. crystal-balling by POs, politicians, cops, et al likely plays the biggest role in the decline. Recently, I’ve also been in touch with Janet Polivy at the University of Toronto to ask her what she thinks of the damage prisoners suffer in hoping for a parole that never comes. Dr. Polivy is the author of a study titled False-Hope Syndrome.
I have been incarcerated for over seven years now with three more to go. I also have a manuscript titled The Criminal’s Handbook that I would like to place on the web for free but am having some difficulty. It’s difficult to do many things when trapped in a cage but we must struggle on. Professor Bob Gaucher of the University of Ottawa and editor of Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, and others have sent me lots of data. I can now receive emails via phone calls to my sister, but this is a luxury few prisoners have.

Obtaining data and contact with the outside is becoming more difficult for prisoners. This is exactly what CSC wants. I’m attempting a few projects with a group of prisoners here but I must be careful not to end up being transferred to a max. We would appreciate being put on your mailing list and any information about prison issues or anti-oppression issues would be welcomed. Anything you send us will be happily copied and handed out to others here. Thanks!

Chris Watts
P.O. Box 760
Campbellford ON
K0L 1L0 Canada
______________

Sincere greetings:

I am one of the exiles currently held on San Quentin’s Death Row. I am writing with extended appreciation for the boundless energy and creativity displayed through your zeal in looking out for the fellas – we the condemned exiles whose plight within the CJS is much like – to borrow a phrase from comrade Bell – Sisyphus in hell without hope of a brighter future.

Concerning my position here I am an old school militant whose theoretical views are still fairly constant in the actuality of perceiving something far greater than this notion of westernized democracy. Like here in this land comrades, the repressive hierarchies of state capitalism is reproducing peoples into mere shells of what they really should be, ought to be. Stunting their equilibrium in ways unimaginable. They are then taught or counselled to blame the self for almost every hardship encountered in their life’s journey, rather than to question critically the institutional root of the problem.

In synch with all this of course is the routine scheduled behind these walls, enriched somewhat by rigorous exercise and meditation. We also hold (periodically) yard class group studies in which issues of cultural history, philosophy and politics are given in-depth review.

Strength and Solidarity, Cliff
__________

Dear 4Strugglemag:

I just recently received issue #11 of your publication. It took me awhile to respond because only days after receiving it I was involved in a protest that not only led to the use of chemical agents against a number of inmates but also led to me being placed on property restriction. Eventually I was recommended for a third tour of Close Management (Florida’s equivalent of a SHU) and in the midst of this process I was transferred to where I’m writing you from now. On the bus / slave ship ride over here I had the opportunity to snatch the envelope with your mailing address on it.

Let me begin by saying I was impressed by your publication. What captured my interest in #11, above everything else, was the roll call of contributors – including but not limited to Marilyn Buck, Sundiata Acoli, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Jalil Muntaqim and more. The primary reason for this is that I’ve set a campaign for myself. That campaign is to build a bridge of solidarity connecting the patriarchs of north-amerikan resistance with the lumpen-proletariat of north amerikan consequence. It is my opinion here in n. amerika that since the fall of the Black Panther Party that Frantz Fanon’s encouragement to enlist the lumpen-poletariat (the “spearhead” of the revolution) in the revolution and his warning against neglecting that same class (the class I am here representing) has all but been forgotten. It is also my opinion that in order for this bridge to be built between the patriarchs (whom the majority of my class have never heard of) and the Lumpen-Proletariat, it must first be constructed by the patriarchs and the inspiring leaders of the lumpen-proletariat organizations (LPOs). 4Strugglemag is the ideal platform for such a construction to be founded.

I would like to submit an article on “lumpen-proletarianism” to be featured in your publication and to serve somewhat as a voice and a message not only to the “patriarchs” and such recognized up-and-coming revolutionary organizations as the WPO and the New Afrikans, but to the revolutionary community as a whole...

In closing I also want to take this opportunity to inform you that the state chapter of the LPO that I represent has recently begun publishing a zine of our own. It is a revolutionary newsletter titled “The Brotherhood of Man.” Its principle purpose is to combat the psychological effects that outlets as the government controlled media and capitalist dominated music industry have had upon the minds of our people by presenting our true history and potential as lumpenized members of the working class. We would appreciate your support in this project and would be open to further discussions on how we could support one another. This would not only serve to expand your readership (amongst the lumpen-proletariat) but also demonstrate to our readership that there are recognized revolutionary organizations, collectives, publications, etc. out there that are living up to the word so many of us are just now wanting to add to our vocabulary.

Solidarity, Morin

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artandanarchy.wordpress.com/david-cunningham

There. It’s happened again. Revolt of near insurrectionary proportions.

Unbeknownst to the rest of us. Waiting with baited breath as we do. Hoping to see smoke on the horizon. ‘Look, do you see the smoke from Athens?’ asks the banner hung in Istanbul, at the bridge closest to the sight of Greece. We strain to see the smoke from here. We search the internet for wafts of smoke, images of smoke rising. And we see a massive Christmas tree on fire. Thousands in black reaching into the smoke and throwing back canisters of teargas. Back to the charging cops who are the last to lose control in riotshield economies.

Is this then what the end of the economy looks like? Is this then what the end of our collective movement looks like? Revolt without warning. Without postings. Wildcat uprisings?!

Athens has had it comin’ for some time now. I was there a few (bunch?) years ago and there was civil war. Anarchists were real. And so were fascists (who are less-real elsewhere). Tit-for-tat street fights of pipe bombs and drive-by moped attacks. Squats were occupied fortresses made into urban bunkers. What if this preparation made revolt more exact when declared on the State whole? What type of preparation can we point too?

This then is what happens. Fire and smoke, for days, (weeks?), (months?). We are not there. None of us it seems. We cannot google ‘leader’ and hit any results. The pre-planned general strike went ahead and added smoke to the air and did not put out the fires or remove the barricades. If allowed to choose our dreams we dream of
‘68. What we see here is a vulgar ‘68. One with masks and black. Not in bloc’s, not in retreat, but everywhere.

What could be the relationship to the revolt and the proletarian? In the country that produced the concept of history, its history is relevant here. I think I once heard that Greece has had more governments in power since WW2 than any other country. I don’t really know what that might mean. But when the reporter made the obvious remark that the birthplace of democracy has turned into anarchy, I feel that to be so.

Having been there I know nothing about it. Having spent time with Greek anarchists in their squats in Athens, I know nothing about them. I got the feeling politics means something more to them: something extreme. And something with a working class feel. I felt this on a Greek island of exiled communists. I felt this laying beside a Greek terrorist in a military hospital in Genoa. I remember hearing cheers within the smoke somewhere, “the Greeks are coming, the Greeks are coming!’ and feeling reassured.

So far, hundreds of buildings have been destroyed, dozens of cops have received retribution, copshops and prisons set alight, as well as at least one (above mentioned) Christmas tree (out front of parliament!). The stats of our side don’t matter. Let’s not make this an equation. Let’s take what we can get. And is this all we get? To sit and surf-solidarity? Of course in Berlin the anarchists are out and there was smoke for a night. But what of here?

Here’s a comparison between here and there… Remember when the teachers went on strike? No, you’ve forgotten. That’s because nothing happened. When the teachers went on strike in Athens in ‘98, the people went with them. Escalating into full-blown insurrection, students and teachers and workers threw-down together against the Greek police. At first were the contradictions and dynamics that turn us lazy organizers away, but ‘the teachers’ had a chance to meet the ‘trouble makers,’ familiarize themselves with masked people and mask up themselves … many of the teachers who discredited the stone throwing on Friday helped make molotov cocktails and covered those who threw them on Sunday.

The ‘well-known proletarians’ who reported the above also described the overall solidarity that’s conditions we here too can strive to create: ‘the flying pickets (striking workers) did not break up regardless of the tear gas; they covered the ones in the frontlines with their size and determination. Equally moving was the support of the people who lived in the area. They provided us with food, lemons for the tear gas, water, medicines and moral support, and made us feel we were not alone. Similar worker solidarity was expressed throughout the days by the railway workers who provided with stones and iron bars from the railway…’

Don’t blame the teachers for us not getting a chance to get political. And don’t wait for the cops to kill someone for the people to rise spontaneous-like. (Because the cops keep killing people {but maybe just not the right ones?}) Insurrections are not spontaneous, and regardless of the hopes of Insurrectionists, are not created from desperation. It seems if our gaze is currently held by Athens, we should investigate, (the what has become cliché) role of workers in a working-class revolt. Because surely it can’t be just the anarchists that continue to hold the line in Greece.

The smoke that chokes Athens has filled the city for longer then the last how-many-ever summits that have taken place. And still our friends in black fight and fight. Even without help from without. In Europe all those squat fights over the years were fought by Europeans. By the trainload they would get there overnight in time to set the next day on fire. But in Athens it seems different. They’re holding their own without excuses or reservations to the customs of an imported global-left. They look to their next door neighbors who stand beside them at the burning barricades.

But lets not fantasize. Fantasy is what’s brought us to our current weakness. A politic of hope offers no hope at all. This revolt in Greece is high drama (remember that bit bout the birthplace of democracy? It seems as obvious to point out the assumption that Greece is the birthplace of theater). Heroes and villains are enshrined within a history of class antagonisms. Our friends are well stocked. Because they organize without a hope for the big-one. Fuck, the big-one is such an obsession here on the fault line, so close to Seattle.

It helps that the country has always been at war. And how that practically helps is, that by running-out the last military dictatorship, the Regime of Colonials in ‘74, the movement then left some victories behind, such as no cops allowed on the universities.

These universities are currently being used as stages to plan war. As catapults to fling war. As hospitals and sanctuaries to protect from war. You can find pictures in the media about journalists being expelled from these sites. Guards in black keep the perimeter and the going-on’ within seem self-explanatory.

These places have been long used for war. When I toured the University of Athens, much of which is squatted, I saw in the sectarian conflict between buildings, a readiness to take the struggle from the walls of cultural revolutionary murals – to the people. What would our universities look like if we captured just a little piece? How would we be able to use them?

From the smoke in Athens it seems clear here, that we (i) have no fuckin idea what is to be done. Some sit and wait for the next big one on our sling-shot calendar, and others organize in the quagmire of community, others for the identity integrity of others, some wait for the day to be tourists at an Indian blockade and be given the chance to seize the opportunity to wash the camp’s dishes, and still others (the most self-gratifying) in writing about what needs to be done.

This is not a collective statement made by some committee. It is collective in no way. It’s alone in writing when it wants to be with others destroying the Greek embassy, brick by brick. But I don’t know enough people to do something like that on the fly. And it’s not something that can be organized. So it is written alone with half-hearted justifications to its isolation.

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BY DHORUBA BIN-WAHAD

While it is true that for the first time white Americans in significant numbers have voted for a “black” man as President, it is of course inaccurate to say that Barack Obama represents or even reflects the historical or contemporary experience (legacy) of African-Americans who have been connected at the hip to white America. After all, with the exception of Tiger Woods (who tried inventing a race to match his background), how many Africans in America were raised in Hawaii by white grandparents and went to Harvard Law school?

Clearly white Americans, by and large, voted for Obama based partly on the “American Storybook” version of “Dreams of My Father” rather than Nightmares of my Ancestors. Hence, it is facetious to claim the majority of white voters consciously voted for an “African-American” descendant of the slaves their forebears terrorized and exploited for centuries--they voted for an African-American without that baggage, perhaps trusting that he couldn’t experience a DNA induced psychological flashback to the bull-whip days on the plantation and go buck-wild as Commander-in-Chief. White America’s “guilt syndrome” is folded neatly into their notion of “American exceptionality,” hence the persistent media implication during the Presidential campaign that Obama was either an “undercover” Muslim or Black Nationalist revolutionary in disguise resonated in so called “white middle-America”.

It took the looming doom of failing capitalism for many white Americans to vote for a black man.

Many white voters harbored media generated suspicion of Obama’s political and religious sympathies, especially from among “undecided” and neo-liberal white Republicans. Such misperceptions are often the strand of thread upon which history dangles. Blacks and liberal white supporters of President Obama from all classes get upset when this is brought up. Yet those same liberals and blacks wouldn’t express similar disdain in an analysis of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s disability as an important subjective factor in his political career, nor perceive a critique of John F. Kennedy’s relationship to his Quasi-Gangster father and clan Patriarch as inappropriate in ascertaining what influenced JFK’s character. Yet when it comes to Obama, the personal is not political and the political is never personal.

Clearly Obama is an extraordinary individual. His success has opened up self-hating African minds to their own self-value, and has bestowed a bloodless “emancipation” on white Americans unwilling to contemplate “payback” [reparations]. But just feeling good about one’s self won’t stop others who don’t feel so good about you from pursuing their nefarious ambitions. In this sense, the Presidency of Barak Obama is symbolically the ascendency of a “political anti-christ” during the greatest and most profound crisis global imperialism has ever faced.

That the Obama campaign was able to almost entirely avoid the influence of a race-based power paradigm in formulation of U.S. foreign policy in no small part was due to the McCain camp’s absolute lack of racist subtlety.

The racist and reactionary rightwing supporting McCain attacked Obama with excerpts from the sermons of his family Pastor Jeremiah Wright, an activist and Liberation Theologian, in an attempt to associate the ideology of Black Nationalism, the noble legacy of black militancy with Obama and thereby frighten white voters into knee jerk racist apoplexy. Not a difficult task for a nation that has never confronted the true legacy of its history.

Clearly the objective was to portray Obama’s personal journey to self-recognition as an “African” as subversive. As if “thinking black,” thinking African, or viewing history from the experiences of one’s own people was a form of subversive moral blasphemy. Perhaps it is. Indeed, Michelle Obama (who does have the bullwhip days in her family DNA memory) was attacked as “un-American” for saying when Obama received the Democratic nomination that for the first time “she felt proud to be American” - a sentiment shared by 90 % of African-Americans.

To reassure white folks that African history in America was not his legacy, or his basis of analysis and frame of reference, Obama renounced all association with Rev. Wright and defined Wright’s views as “divisive” rather than worthy of challenge by American historians.

Moreover, Obama didn’t take the Wright imbroglio as an opportunity to educate America about race; instead he merely distanced himself from the issue and moved on to win the ultimate political prize in the land, the Presidency of the United States. To many of course this was “strategy.” After all, you can’t scare “white people,” who believe they have an innate right to piss on the rest of the world while whistling the Battle Hymn of the Republic, and expect to win a national election.

Only a monumental crisis that threatened everyone’s livelihood could shake up white folks more than the prospect of a black president, and lo and behold, finance capitalism’s October surprise -- economic meltdown. America woke up to the reality of debt-based prosperity as the American empire tumbled into financial distress. Fannie and Freddie were on Viagra, and the pharmacy wasn’t taking any more credit. Of course, this opportunistic view in itself is deprecating because it also presumes that white Americans are so historically challenged they are unable to be trusted to think beyond their narrow self-interests. So the economy gave Obama a boost -- but he probably would have won anyway.

Even if McCain had run his campaign like the Clintons, he may have still lost, but he would have had a broader spectrum of undercover racist whites on his side, and conservative self-hating Negroes applauding his virtues. Indeed, up until the Democratic convention, disgruntled Hillary supporters were anti-Obama and mumbled their support for McCain ostensibly because of his “inexperience.”

Hanoi Shorty, as McCain is known in the “Hood,” tried to exploit this discontent among white female Democrats by appointing “Muffy” from Alaska, Sarah Palin as his running mate.She was a true political Palindrome -- an air-head spelled the same backwards as forwards -- an affront to any thinking woman, white or black. Few could believe it! Obama couldn’t have chosen a better opposition to run against if he wanted to.

The McCain - Obama contrasts were so stark and glaring that they could have illuminated Ray Charles’s way to Georgia, were he still alive. Clearly the only way Obama could lose was if the Republicans “Bogarted” the elections as they did the previous two national elections. Now all of this is “history” (his-story) and as George Will the erudite right-wing pundit explained, the Obama campaign has relieved white America of the lodestone of race -- “Obama is white America’s Emancipation Proclamation.”

I would suppose George Will envisions a different “Reconstruction” scenario from the one that took place at the end of the American Civil War.

Dhoruba al-Mujahid bin Wahad (born Richard Moore, 1945) is an American writer and activist, who is a former prisoner, Black Panther Party leader, and co-founder of the Black Liberation Army.

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You say give him time to unwind a stimulus plan, while the
Republican’s continue to make demands to undermine retooling
of America. They being obstructionist seeking to slow the rush in
us to live better lives. Yet, those in the know knows this is no time
to repose when economic woes cascades like Niagara falls leaving the
lower classes under black and white kaffiyeh shawls of socio-economic
malnutrition. They starving for relief that welfare and food stamps
can’t ease the lack of funds that has undone middle class dreams of
prosperity. For clarity it should be reiterated the stimulus package
will result in Barack being demeaned, prompt the implementation
of new schemes, to ensure the plutocrats continue to govern with
Obama as the leader of their economic team. However, in his State of
the Union speech in an effort to teach, Obama sought to distinguished
himself from the general political leech. But not since LBJ and MLK
has government policies supported minorities in any significant way.
So, don’t blame me for being cynical when U.S. political history
towards people of color has proven to be criminal.

I only ask that you consider the pathology of a polymorphous
pertinacious politician, a chameleon of kaleidoscopic proportion
posturing as a people person whose policies are dictated by the
highest bidder. A transmitter of the ideals of homogeneity with
the proclivity to speak with a silver fork tongue, when all is said
and done, the plutocrats will have gotten more money and run.
Another multi-billion dollar bailout from one who may not epitomize
the proverbial sellout with a charismatic smile. I am just exclaiming
progressive young folks need to keep a watch-out all the while, since
poor people are hanging on to his every word as he gesticulate like a
puppeteer with a messiah complex having no fear, urging genuflection
to enhance his Presidential career, steering the masses to support him
for another 4 years.

As this seemingly ubiquitous incestuous system of avarice, continuously
carnivorously nourish on its own people, on the putrid green altar at the
Temple of the Federal Reserve Bank, where they ritualistically proclaim
“In God We Trust.” “We The People” must discuss and organize our
collective disgust of this global economic bust. Globalization has taken
its toll, manufacturing has slowed, the stock market has foretold that
conspicuous consumption has closed. Common folks produce the wealth,
but have no say in how it is shared, their lives in disrepair full of despair
with foreclosures, pink slips and no way to spare a dime in this clime, void
a collective survival mode there is no extol of a humanitarian code that we
are all suffering together.

So, how can I blame you for falling for a White House color change, after
being told Americans could once again compete, after recovering from this
global economic retreat, even though the name of the game remains the same,
class struggle should now be claimed, if progressive folks take the reins, and
forge a mass and popular movement including a national agenda to upend the
capitalist-imperialist reign. To demand reparations and redistribution of the
wealth, now that is a stimulus plan without the stealth, can it be said such notion
is like magic portion, that only a social revolution can dispense without suspense,

by applying a little common sense. Putting the money directly in the hands of
the oppressed masses, unfortunately, such idea passes as socialist. But it is
often said if common sense were common, all of these Fools would have it.

Obama-mania has claimed you! But can you see the forest beyond the
tree? “We The People” must take a stand, and free the land of political
leeches, with their speeches blinding us with rhetoric about bipartisan
unity. I am not splitting hairs, it is just that I care that we learn to share
when it comes to our socio-economic affairs. Damn the politicians with
their flair, because it makes no difference when they don’t dare to hold
capitalist institutions accountable. Mass mobilization, general strikes,
taking the fight to D.C., demanding the end of imperialist wars from sea
to shining seas, for public ownership of the means of production, that will
cause a reduction in capitalist greed. For big agri-businesses, the building
of cooperative farming like, Victory Gardens would be alarming, bartering
and trading no longer delaying our collective voices must be heard. If
market forces and consumer spending is the engine of this machine, then,
“We The People” must take control, reclaim our revolutionary souls, like
in the laws of the natural order of things.

Remember: We Are Our Own Liberators!

Jalil A. Muntaqim
(Anthony Bottom) 2311826
San Francisco County Jail
850 Bryant St
San Francisco, CA 94103

For more of Jalil’s poems logon to: www.freejalil.com

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Why did the number of foreclosures increase in the past three years? How did this increase decimate the US and global financial system? What happened to all the money that was ‘lost’? Why is the government handing so much money over to the Big Banks? What did all of these financial going-ons have to do with car manufacturers and other producers of physical goods? Who is to blame?

If you take out a mortgage to buy a house, the bank considers this loan an asset. It gives this asset a value based on 1) expected earnings and 2) expected risk. The expected earnings are the interest made from the loan. The expected risk is the probability of default. If the expected earnings increase or the expected risk decreases, then the value of the asset increases, and vice versa. This is exactly the same way the value of a corporation is assessed. Its market capitalization is based on expected earnings divided by the perceived risk. If the value of a company is decreasing, it is because the expectations for its future profits are decreasing, or there is an increased perceived threat to those profits.

A large portion of the value of the Big Banks is based on expectations concerning the mortgages they hold, as these provide much of their earnings. For a bank to increase its valuation it can a) increase its total lending, b) increase the interest rates it charges or c) decrease the perceived risk associated with default. The banks have done all three. Between 1997 and 2007 the ratio of mortgage debt to wages increased from 136.1% to 229%.

Although interest rates generally remained flat or slightly decreased the much maligned ‘subprime mortgage’ carries higher than usual interest rates and these mortgages have accounted for a disproportionate share of the growth in mortgage lending. In 2003, subprime mortgages were just over three percent of total mortgage debt. By 2008, that had risen to almost 10%.

The expansion of mortgage debt was partially driven by extending higher interest loans to people who had typically been excluded from home ownership, especially people of colour. These loans were considered riskier, which will be discussed in greater detail below. However, the banks managed to reduce the perception of risks through the creation of the infamous ‘derivatives’, which will also be discussed further on. The payoff for this expanded lending, particularly of subprime mortgage with higher interest rates and a reduced perception of risk has been a growth rate of 11.6% per year for the ‘Biggest Banks’ between 2000 and 2007. This compares to 7.3% annual growth for the 500 biggest corporations in general. Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, two of the casualties of the financial crisis, had even greater growth rates: 20% and 17.5%, respectively.

‘Subprime mortgages’ have been identified as the primary culprits in the financial crisis. However, the mainstream coverage of the crisis rarely explains what these mortgages are, how they work, or why the rates of default suddenly skyrocketed. Let’s start with the name, which makes little sense if we think of ‘prime’ and ‘subprime’ as referring to interest rates, given that subprime mortgages carry higher interest rates. However, it does make sense when we think of ‘prime’ and ‘subprime’ as referring to the borrowers: prime borrowers get lower rates, ‘subprime losers’[2] get higher rates. Subprime mortgages often had adjustable interest rates. The rate charged moves with changes in the prime rate. The alternative is a fixed rate loan that locks in a certain interest rate for the duration of the loan.

The subprime loans were also occasionally hybrid loans, which had a low fixed rate for the first two years of the loan, meaning even higher rates for the remainder. Sometimes borrowers were offered ‘interest only’ loans for the first five years. This meant that their monthly payments did not reduce the principle and only covered the interest being charged.

So, what caused the spike in defaults among subprime borrowers?

The interest rate of adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) is ultimately tied to the Fed Fund rate set by the Federal Reserve Board. Beginning in 2000, the Fed Fund began to fall. This also marks the beginning of the rapid expansion of mortgage debt.

For almost 12 months, beginning in late 2003, the Fed Fund rate was held at the extraordinarily low level of one percent. As a result, prime and subprime mortgage rates were very low, making mortgages attractive to potential buyers. Although home prices were rising borrowing money, even for subprime borrowers, was extremely cheap, allowing more people to enter the housing market, driving home prices even higher. It is unclear what proportion of the demand for houses was speculative.

The Federal Reserve began to increase the Fed Fund rate in July of 2004. The official line is that the rate hikes were needed to combat inflation. However, these rates are also what attract investors to US Treasury Bills, the means by which the government funds its deficits.

Of course, the Bush Administration’s tax cuts for the rich and its ‘War on Terror’ resulted in record deficits. Shortly before the Federal Reserve began to increase the Fed Fund, foreign demand for US Treasury bills began to fall. It is possible that the hike was necessary to re-open this important source of credit.

The combination of rising interest rates and the hybrid mortgages meant borrowers had to make substantially higher monthly payments. In late 2005, as the Fed Fund rate continued to rise, the mortgage defaults began to increase. By 2008 almost 20% of subprime borrowers’s accounts were ‘delinquent’ and just under 12% had been foreclosed upon. This means that the value of roughly one out of every eight subprime mortgages had dropped to almost zero[3]. Yet, the banks lost far more than one eighth of their value, and the losses happened sooner and faster than the rise in defaults. This is because of the derivatives the banks created and owned as a means of ‘managing risk.’

I noted above that the value of a mortgage for the bank is the expected earnings divided by the risk of default. A subprime mortgage has a higher perceived risk of default. In order to compensate banks charge higher interest rates to increase the expected earnings. The higher returns are supposed to be a reward to the lender for taking on the higher risk. With the use of derivatives the banks thought they had greatly reduced the risk associated with these loans, when really they had just masked it. The particular kind of derivatives that have been the focal point of the current crisis are the ‘mortgage backed securities’ (MBSs).

Imagine you have $200,000 to invest. You decide to get into the mortgage lending game. That $200,000 will likely only be enough for one mortgage. That means all of your money is riding on a single borrower. If it is a subprime borrower, there is a 6% chance of default[4]. If one hundred people did this, then six of them will lose their money. You are better off purchasing MBSs instead. The bank could group together these hundred mortgages and then sells off newly created assets to the 100 investors, with the interest from all the mortgages as the assets’s source of income.

This way the risk is shared among all the purchasers of the derived asset. Instead of six investors losing all of their investment, all one hundred would lose 6%.

This is a very simply example of a derivative and they can be much, much more complex. In fact, many financial insiders are now saying they did not entirely understand how some of these derivatives worked. Nevertheless, all of the troubled assets are backed by mortgages, especially subprime mortgages. Subprime derived mortgages were especially desirable because they had such high returns based on their high interest rates. Further, ARMs held out the promise of even greater returns as interest rates rose. Someone holding a derivative makes money from it two ways: 1) the aforementioned interest earnings and 2) if the price of the asset increases. It was the second phenomenon that sank the banks.

The market for mortgage backed securities exploded, especially for those backed by subprime mortgages, with their high returns. Much of the spike in demand was the perception that the risk associated with these mortgages had almost disappeared through the creation of derivatives. The rising value of these assets drove the banks to ever greater levels of lending in order to create more assets. The values of the banks skyrocketed as the values of their assets climbed. Citigroup, one of the survivors of the crisis, went from being the 78th largest US corporation in 1996 to the 2nd largest in 2006. Since then it has lost more than 90% of its value.

As mortgage defaults rose on rising interest rates it became clear that the risk associated with the assets backed by these mortgages had been greatly underestimated. Although expected earnings were falling because of the defaults, it was the perception of increased risk that most affected the value of the mortgage-backed securities. Demand for the assets dried up and their value plummeted.

Banks carry large amounts of debt as part of their operation. They require the constant creation of new debt in order to meet existing debt obligations. When their asset values were high and they appeared to be safe and sound, it was not difficult for them to get these loans. When the value of their assets fell they could no longer get the loans they needed and were themselves at risk of default. Further, they shutdown their own lending. This is how manufacturers like GM got mixed up in the crisis. They also require new lines of credit to meet existing obligations, including wages and pensions. Without access to credit they are at risk of bankruptcy. This is why the government has stepped in. They are buying the risky ‘toxic assets’ from the banks and providing loans to the automobile industry to prevent it from collapsing.

Foreclosures have disproportionately hit the poor, immigrants, people of color, and other disadvantaged groups and yet they are also the one’s being ultimately blamed for the crisis. Although a lot of attention is being directed at poorly constructed derivative valuation programs, unscrupulous lending and other finance industry misdeeds, the underlying accusation is that borrowers were irresponsible. However, the mortgages they were being offered were time bombs constructed by a finance industry desperate for profit. Homeowners became the collateral damage when the bombs exploded.

In testimony before Congress former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, as much an architect of the crisis as anyone, asserted, “I found a flaw in the model that I perceived as the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works.” But the crisis is really just capitalism as usual. The greed of the vested interests created the conditions for collapse, the government steps in to bail them out and the masses pay the price.

[1] By ‘Biggest Banks’ I mean the finance corporations included among the 500 largest corporations as measured by market value.

[2] This refers to a comment on CNBC by commentator Rick Santelli: “Why don’t you put up a website and have people vote on the internet, as a referendum, to see if we really want to subsidize the losers’ mortgages.” In an interaction between Santelli and the host, he goes on to state that even with -2% interest rates, most of these ‘losers’ couldn’t service their mortgages.

[3] It isn’t zero because the bank ends up with the home. However, with housing prices falling, and credit drying up, these are not exactly valuable assets, as far as they are concerned.

[4] This was about the average default rate prior to the recent crisis.

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The ambulances would have been clearly visible to Israeli drones and special forces with their rooftop indentification markings, bright flashing lights and solo movement in the deserted, pitch black strees of Jabaliya.

An aerial curfew

Everyone is terrified by surveillance plane strikes here. ‘Zenane’ they call them, because of the zzzzz sound they make. They have been firing explosive missiles into people - people walking, in cars, sitting in doorways drinking tea, standing on rooftops, praying together, sitting at home and watching television together.

In Naim Street Beit Hanoun, at 9.30pm on Sunday, Samieh Kaferna , 40, was hit by flying shrapnel to his head. Neighbours called him to come to their home. Fearing his home would be struck, he and a group of relatives began to move from one home to another, to be safer. The second missile struck them down directly. When we arrived one man, eyes gigantic, was being dragged into the pavement, half of his lower body shredded, his intestines slopping out. He was alive, his relatives were screaming, we managed to take four, whilst six others, charred and dismembered, were brought in on the back of an open cattle truck. Beit Hanoun Hospital was chaos, with screaming relatives and burning bodies. Three men died in the attack, 10 were injured, six from the same Abu Harbid family. Three had to have leg amputations, and one a double amputation.

Burning shrapnel in eyes is a common injury, shrapnel slices deep into to any soft fleshy parts of the body. We brought a boy from Beit Hanoun with a distorted heavily bandaged head wrapped in bandages, to Al Nasser hospital with its specialist eye unit and mental health clinic. When we get there, its pitch black, doctors are sitting around candles, the place is freezing and full of shadows. Both the doctors and their have been patients blinded with Israeli-controlled power cuts that intensify the confusion, fear, and psychological darkness caving in on people here.

Burning shrapnel in eyes - like those of three year old Shedar Athman Khader Abid from Beit Hanoun, ‘injured in the left eye, explosive injury, full thickness corneal wound, iris prologue and vitreous loss’ according to her medical report. Her father approaches my friend, quietly, to ask if its possible for me to help her, to get her out to have eye surgery, ‘This girl, she was like a moon, haram, three years old and her beauty is robbed from her’.

Extremely hot, shrapnel lodges in chests, legs, faces, hands, stomachs, and skullls. I’ve been taught, don’t focus on stopping bleeding with shrapnel injuries, there is very little blood, the foreign bodies burn inside. Many casualties we’ve brought in that seem ok, literally, on ‘the surface’, only to die a few days later. People talk about the missiles being poison tipped, and there have been reports of white phosphorous being used.

Dead for buying bread

Last night four members of a family, were traveling back from the bakers in Beit Lahiya. Squeezed into a white skoda, their bag of bread still warm, they were struck by a surveillance plane missile at 6pm. Khaled Ismaeel Kahlood, 44, and his three sons Mohammad 15, Habib, 12, and Towfiq, 10, were cut into pieces by the attack which blew their car in two. Taxi driver Hassan Khalil, 20, was also martyred in the attack. The bodies brought into Kamal Odwan hospital were virtually unrecognizable.

A Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees ambulance was fired upon at approximately 8.30am on Sunday morning killing Paramedic and father of five, Arafa El Deyem, 35. He and another rescue worker had been evacuating casualties which had come under fire from an Israeli tank East of Jabaliya in the North of the Gaza Strip. Witnesses report that as the door of the ambulance was being closed a tank shell hit El Deyem. El Deyem died from a massive loss of blood following a major trauma to his chest. Paramedics I ride with cherish his memory, carrying his photo - a kind and strong looking, bearded man - on their mobile phones.

The following day, at the family’s grieving tent, five of El Deyem’s relatives were killed when a missile smashed into the tent in the Beit Hanoun Area. Arafat Mohammed Abdel Deinm, 10, Mohammad Jamal Abdel Dein, 25, Maher Younis Abdel Dein, 30, and Said Jamal Said, 27, all died from head and internal explosive injuries. Witnesses claim the missile was fired by an Israeli surveillance drone.

The Ministry of Health confirmed that Doctor Anis Naeem, a nephew of the Hamas Minister of Health, Bassem Naeem, and a colleague were killed in the Zeitoun area on Sunday afternoon when a missile strike from an Israeli surveillance plane impacted on the home they had entered in order to retrieve casualties. Rescue workers Ihab el-Madhoun 35, and Mohammad Abu Hasira, 24, were struck by Israeli missiles when trying to collect casualties in the Jabal Al Rais area of Jabbaliya last Tuesday. Witnesses said Ihab went to assist his colleague following a strike on the rescue workers. He too was then struck.

Abu Hasira was brought to the Kamal Ahdwan governmental hospital in Jabaliya and died at 7.30am according to hospital records. The cause of death was multiple trauma injuries. Ihab died from massive internal injuries following an operation on his chest and abdominal area five hours later.

Khalil Abu Shammalah, Director of Al Dhumeer Association based in Gaza City said: ‘It is a breach of the fourth Geneva Convention to target emergency medical services under conditions of war and occupation. Battlefield casualties are also protected under the Geneva Conventions and cannot be targeted once injured. Israel is in breach of international law’.

The Israeli news agency Y-Net recently reported that Yuval Duskin, Director of the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet, told the Israeli cabinet that large numbers Hamas operatives are hiding in hospitals and dressing as medical workers. Palestinian medical officials have dismissed the claims as ‘nonsense’. Rescue workers are terrified that hospitals will join the list of civilian targets including homes, schools, universities, mosques, and shops hit in Israel ‘s offensive so far.

Homes crushed

People and their homes are being pulverized by Israeli tank shells, F16s and bulldozers. I traveled to the buffer zone area of Sikka Street close to the Erez checkpoint, to see the damage. 27 houses had been crushed by either bulldozers or tank shells, one had been destroyed by an F16 bomb. 10 water wells and 200 dunums of land - orange groves and strawberry fields, have been bulldozed, and approximately 250 people have been made homeless.

Six members of the Kiferna family were crushed to death when their home was fired upon by Tanks on Sunday night. People were coming back to their homes for the first time. The Hamdan Family had three homes in a row destroyed. I asked one woman sitting amongst the ruins of her home where she would go now? She replied, ‘Beit Hanoun UNRWA school’. ‘But do you think that will be safe?’ I ask her. ‘No, but I have nowhere else to go’ she replied.

The Al Naim Mosque was also completely destroyed, holy books still smouldering from the attacks. Approximately one in 10 of the some 100 mosques in the Jabaliya area have been destroyed in Israel ‘s assault. ‘We see them as personal centers for us, theyre not Hamas, and we paid for them out of our own money, they belong to us, not anyone else’, explained one Imam based in Jabaliya.

The demolition of Mosques means many people are praying in the streets, at the Kamal Odwan hospital, people pray in the garden area opposite, and at the funeral for the 42 people, mostly children, massacred at the Fakhoura School , hundreds prayed on the ground that was turned into an early graveyard.

Forced out

On Sunday night, all Sikka Street residents were given five minutes to leave their homes, ordered out through loudhailers, unable to take any belongings with them, rounded up by Israeli occupation forces and taken to the Al Naim Mosque. Women, children and the elderly were put inside and men aged between 16-40 were kept in a field outside in the cold and interrogated. Six were taken to Erez, three were released a day later and were told by soldiers, according to a witness, that it was safe for them to make their own way home along Salahadeen Street. It was there that special forces allegedly shot 33 year-old Shaadi Hissam Yousef Hamad 33, in the head.

Torn schoolbooks lie amidst rubble, and Iman Mayer Hammad picks through the debris of her life, a hejab, shoes, pictures, she cries out, ‘Its all gone, everything, they’ve taken everything, my children can’t finish their exams, how will they finish their exams?’

Hundreds of children won’t be finishing their exams in Gaza because they’re dead.

Whether people stay in their homes or leave, they are being bombed. Majid Hamdan Wadeeya, 40, was hit in the leg and spine with shrapnel while he and his family were preparing to leave their home in Jaffa Street, Jabaliya. We arrived at his home on Tuesday afternoon to find the family’s decrepit red car still running and the family minivan stuffed with mattresses, towels, blankets, and belongings, blasted open. They had been hit by a missile from either a drone of apache. ‘We were going from the bombing, from the bombing’, screamed his children, all terrified. We managed to take half of the family, the rest got in their red car and followed.

We were interviewing residents at the UNRWA elementary school in Jabaliya, close to the Fakhoora school, at exactly the same time of the massacre.The Sahaar family, which had walked from their home in Salahdeen Street to seek refuge in the school on the first day of invasion, were asking us, ‘But do you think we are safe here? We feel that any time a missile could come down us? Are we safe here?’ The 500 people, some 50 families living in classrooms, share just 14 toilets and rely on rations to survive. The nights are cold as the windows have been smashed out by Israeli bomb attacks. Noone can sleep at night because of the sounds of homes, mosques and people being bombed to the ground.

The fabric of life

Everyone here knows someone who has been killed in Israel ‘s massacres. I can’t keep up with the stories of missile struck cousins, nephews, brothers, the jailed, the humiliated, the shot, the unreachable, the homeless, the now even more vulnerable than ever, people, not pieces, piling up in morgues all over Gaza, not pieces, people. These people are struggling to live and breathe another day, to avoid the lethal use of F16s, F15s, Apache Helicopters, Cobra Gun Ships, Israeli naval gun ships, that are targeting them.

These networks and vision have held strong for 60 years, but another fabric of life is being planned by Israel . Whilst people say they are resisting the worst attack on them since the Nakba, Israel proceeds to cantonise the West Bank, under a project of roads and tunnels ‘for Palestinains’ which reinforce the existing illegal settlement system, apartheid wall, land and water theft and Palestinian bantustanisation. Under the banner of ‘development’, this network of new facts on the ground, ‘for the Palestinians’ is called, ‘The Fabric of Life’. Israel is blasting holes in one corner of the Palestinian fabric of life through extreme violence, and tearing up another part with the help of international companies and governments and internal authority complicity.

Back at Kamall Odwan hospital, Dr Moayan, explains, ‘Its not about just riding the streets of civilians, because, they are bombing us even when we have left, when we are inside supposedly safe compounds. I have left my house, and now have nowhere else to go, nowhere else to go.’ He continues to say what hundreds of people are saying, ‘This is the worst we have ever seen, we have never had this level of violence. It has shocked even us. In Lebanon they killed over 1700 people, will it come to this here?’

The global intifada

This killing continues, day and night, and its not just people that are being physically dismembered, their families are being dismembered, their communities are being dismembered, the landscape of Gaza is full of holes. The fabric of these communities, that neighbours no longer neighbours, that families no longer living or alive together is being stretched to breaking point. People are being made refugees again, tents as homes awaiting them again, as no buildings or building materials are available for people to even rebuild their shattered lives, their smashed homes, shops, mosques, governmental buildings, community centres, charities, offices, clinics, youth centers.

How do you break a people that won’t be broken? ‘They will have to kill each and everyone of us’ people tell me. From the first days here people were expecting ‘the shoah’ threatened upon them by Matan Villai , Israel’s deputy defence minister this February. It is happening. It is happening now. This is the Shoah.

The third Intifada being urged now has to be our intifada too. As Israel steps up its destruction of the Palestinian people, we need to step up our reconstruction of our resistance, our movements, of our communities in our own counties, where so many of us live in alienation and isolation. We need to be the third intifada - people here need more and say repeatedly that they need more than the demonstrations, because they are not stopping the killing here. Demonstrations alone, are not stopping the killing here.

The arms companies making the weapons that are targeting people here, the companies that are selling stolen goods from occupied land pillaging settlements, the companies building the apartheid wall, the prisons, the East Jerusalem Light Railway system. These companies, Carmel Agrexco, Caterpillar, Veolia, Raytheon, EDO, BAE Systems, they are complicit in the crimes against humanity being committed here. If the international community will not uphold international law, then a popular movement should and can - we can use the legal system of international law as one of many means to hold on to our collective humanity.

The European Union decision, undertaken by the Council of Ministers this December, to upgrade relations with Israel, from economic ties to cultural, security, and political relations must be reversed. The EU represents a core strategic market of legitimacy and political economic reinforcement of Israel and as such its capacity to commit crimes against humanity, with impunity.

We can cut this tie, we can halt this decision which if approved this April, will empower Israel further, bring it closer to the ‘community of nations’ of the EU, and give a green light for further terror and crimes against humanity be inflicted upon the Palestinian people. This is a decision which has not yet been ratified. We can influence that which hasn’t happened yet.

There are concrete steps that people can take, learning from the lessons of the first Intifada and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign to dismantle the South African Apartheid regime. Strategies of popular resistance, strikes, occupations, direct actions. From the streets into the offices, factories and headquarters is where we need to take this fight, to the heart of decision-makers that are supposedly making decisions on our behalf and the companies making a killing out of the occupation. The third intifada needs to be a global intifada.

Ewa Jasiewicz is an experienced journalist, community and union organizer, and solidarity worker. She is currently Gaza Project Co-coordinator for the Free Gaza Movement. www.freegaza.org

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Our editor, anti-imperialist political prisoner Jaan Laaman, liked the article and wanted to expand the discussion:“A young man who I’ve known for over a year - recent college grad and radical activist - was just telling me about his concerns about the level and widespreadness of sexist attitudes and practices in the activist communities,” Jaan wrote. “I guess I shouldn’t be, but I was kind of surprised and of course disappointed to hear this. Some of what he was describing sounded similar to shit that was real and also largely resolved in a progressive-revolutionary way like 30 years ago. Society itself is still so sexist, so I guess things have gone backwards in radical circles too.”

As Spider pointed out, despite the victories and concessions of the women’s liberation movements of the 1920s and 1960s (as well as LGBT movements), traditional gender roles for women and men are still very much embedded in mainstream societies. And our social justice movements unintentionally continue to replicate these patterns of repression in many cases. The common misconception that sexism in our movements is no longer an issue is as dangerous as the idea that racism is no longer an issue in contemporary society. It needs to be confronted head-on by men and women alike.

At 4strugglemag, we are committed to not only providing a space for these debates, but also reprinting important references to aid in education and dialogue. In the print edition of this section on women in the struggle, we are running two reflections on the subject from the history of the Black Panther Party and the Chicano/Chicana movement, as well as a more contemporary piece on the continued prevalence of sexism in anarchist and radical activist groups. We hope that our readers who are not in prison will seek these excellent books out too.

We know that many of you use 4strugglemag in your study groups. We hope that you will explore these rich and complex readings in detail, and that you will begin or renew discussions on how men can challenge their own sexism and build stronger movements based on comradely respect and love. We are also interested in hearing about the ways in which gender identities/dynamics manifest themselves in prisons, where people are segregated by gender. We encourage you to share your responses with us in Issue 13, so that we can expand this “classroom” to include people who don’t have study groups in their institutions.

As for our female readers, we hope that you will raise your voices in this discussion and share your experiences and opinions with us. And that you will encourage others to join in as well!

These articles do not provide definitive answers, but we offer them as a starting place for this essential process of understanding that class struggle, anti-racist and anti-sexist work must be integrally united in any successful movement towards liberation. As Spider put it, “Not only do wimyn need revolution, but the revolution needs wimyn.”

See:

"Chicana Feminism" by Anna Nietogomez. From Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings. Edited by Alma M. Garcia. Routledge, 1997.

“'No One Ever Asks What a Man’s Role in the Revolution Is': Gender Politics and Leadership in the Black Panther Party, 1966-71" by Tracye A. Matthews. From Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights – Black Power Movement. Edited by Bettye Collier-Thomas and V.P. Franklin. New York: NYU Press, 2001.

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Challenging Ideas and Behaviors

The continuum begins with our personal thoughts and behavior. Growing up in a sexist society imbues within us the idea that women are inferior to men. Unless these ideas are thoroughly challenged, in every aspect of our lives, every waking minute, then these ideas are allowed to flourish in our behavior. Many may feel this is an obvious point, but as Kevin Powell wrote in a recent Ms. article, “Everyday I struggle within myself not to use the language of gender oppression, to see the sexism inherent in every aspect of America, to challenge all injustices, not just those that are convenient for me.”

Anti-sexism is not just about fighting overt forms of sexism - violent rape, domestic violence, overtly sexist words - it is also about challenging our relationships, the ideas that create a rape culture, the way people are socialized, etc. These are not convenient issues to struggle around for they involve digging deep within ourselves, traveling back in our development, and dedicating time to the difficult process of self-change. We must challenge the ideas and behaviors that promote sexism to other men and alienate women-both in personal relationships and in organizations.

Recognizing that anti-sexist work is a deep, hard process is very important but a point many miss. All too often men who are genuinely against sexism fail to acknowledge and challenge the sexism that lies within themselves. “I AM anti-sexist,” they proclaim. But it is said so loudly that they fail to hear the voices of women. It becomes a label to proudly sport instead of a serious and difficult process. Don’t get me wrong, if a man is indeed anti-sexist, he needs to display it, but this is accomplished through his actions and in his explanations of our current reality- especially to other men. Men must become examples to challenge the mainstream notions of masculinity and that takes more than a simple label.

Often complexities arise, however, when women challenge “anti-sexist” men. Men get defensive when women critique their oppressive and sexist behaviors. Rather than listening and benefiting from criticism, a defensive stance is taken and women’s voices are ignored once again. No one is above being questioned, as there should be no unnecessary hierarchy. The lack of principled criticism and self-criticism within the anarchist movement is the first problem that is then compounded when applied to issues of sexism and other forms of oppression. Women must be genuinely listened to and, if the criticisms are valid, men should seek to change their thoughts and their actions.

Political Study

Understanding sexism is important to all within the anarchist movement. However, as a woman, it is not my duty to always answer questions and educate men on how sexism affects my life. Many anarchist groups already have a program in place that could be utilized to gain a better understanding of sexism without burdening women with the task of explaining our lives: the political study group. When was the last time you or your group read something on women, sexism, feminism, or women’s liberation?

Many times, and I have been guilty of this, we feel that readings on women’s issues are not as important as readings on capitalism or anarchism or anti-colonial struggle, etc. We have to stop considering women’s liberation as a side project or issue and view it as an integral part of the liberation struggle. These writings do not have to be specifically anarchist or even revolutionary to give us good insights. When was the last time you read something by Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Barbara Smith, Angela Davis, Patricia Hill Collins, or Emma Goldman? We must take the initiative to read that which women have placed before us.

Encouraging Women

Since I was a little girl, I was socialized to feel inferior to men. I was socialized to recognize where my “place” was in society and it was not participating in an equal dialogue with men, certainly not in any type of politics, and it was definitely not on any kind of front line of revolutionary struggle. I often look around at meetings and events (that are not women-centric) and see that I am one of a handful of women in attendance or worse yet, the only woman there. Alternately, even when there are a lot of women in the room, I find that I am the only woman contributing to the dialogue.

When examining women’s involvement in political struggle, we have to examine the root causes. Women are socialized to look at politics as outside of our realm. When the politics are radical or revolutionary, the level of intimidation increases. Because of this reality, we have to exert a lot of time and energy into creating a more anti-sexist/pro-woman movement. We have to start by involving more women within our organizations and movements. This first involves putting sexism as one of the main points of organization alongside the other issues affecting women (and all humans): racism, heterosexism, ableism, colonialism, and class oppression. While we cannot place all of our energy into all of these problems at once, we must ensure we are dealing holistically with all of these issues within our focus. Second, we must actively recruit women into our organizations. This takes various forms such as tabling at women’s events, consistent outreach to women and participating in women-centric struggles.

Once women are in our organizations, we must look at the level of participation of women within the organization. I have been involved with politics for 7+ years. It has only been within the past year and a half that I have fully participated in politics. This is because I have had to learn that I could speak in meetings, that I could contribute in meaningful and positive ways, and that it is my place to contribute and participate. I have had to overcome the intimidation I felt when I was working with men who I looked up to and respected. I had to overcome the mental chains that were holding me back.

A couple factors contributed to this change. A dear comrade helped me realize that I am fully capable of participating and that no one can say different. For him, it was crucial that I participate on an equal level and he put a great deal of time and energy in encouraging me. I would love to see more men take up this task. Then, my level of commitment, seriousness, and sense of responsibility to liberatory politics forced me to put my level of involvement above my sense of comfort. This was not an easy task at all and one that I still struggle with to this day. This is something that we all have to battle within ourselves; men can help women get to this point by treating women equally and respectfully. We also must analyze our organizational behaviors. Are we consistently encouraging women to take up leadership positions? Is it mostly men or women who are taking up speaking engagements? Who talks at meetings? Who facilitates meetings? Who does the work of the organization, and then, who gets credit for it? We have to be very perceptive of men talking over women, invalidating and/or ignoring a woman’s words and contributions.

We all must make an extra effort to look at the gender dynamics of our functions and meetings. Without the direct leadership of women in any movement, our important voices are left out of the dialogue and the fight against sexism.

Anarchist Organizational Structures

One of the biggest challenges to the anarchist movement is creating viable anti-authoritarian structures for our organizations. We are struggling to create new ideas of organization from the examples we have had and through new ideas and innovations. Not only are we trying to organize our movement in an anarchist fashion but it is also a testing ground for a future society.

Anarchism seeks to create a society based on a great sense of personal responsibility and accountability to ourselves and each other. We want a society based on mutual aid and communalism. This cannot happen out of spontaneous activity; it must result out of a highly organized society based on democratic, decentralized structures. I hope the anarchist movement realizes the need to work out new structural ideas for our organizations and a new society. I know many feel creating structure inherently runs counter to the ideas and principles of anarchism. I would argue that not sitting down and forming democratic structures is counter to the ideas and principles of anarchism.

Jo Freeman wrote in The Tyranny of Structurelessness that “The idea of structurelessness does not prevent the formation of informal structures, only formal ones. A ‘laissez-faire’ ideal for group structure becomes a smoke screen for the strong or the lucky to establish unquestioned hegemony over others. Thus structurelessness becomes a way of masking power. As long as the structure of the group is informal, the rules of how decisions are made are known only to the few, and awareness of power is limited to those who know the rules.”

Structurelessness is often a means to perpetuate sexism, racism and class stratification. If men are socialized to be leaders and women are not, then it is not hard to imagine who would develop into leaders in a non-structured organization. A lack of structure provides no means of balancing those with certain privileges with those who are oppressed. We must create organizational structures that inherently guard against these forms of power imbalance.

In forming anarchist organizational structures, we must also form structures to specifically deal with sexism in our organizations. One very sensitive issue that we have to address is sexual assault (and domestic violence). I have heard of many situations where a politically active male has sexually assaulted a fellow activist. It would be impossible to plan out all of the steps of dealing with this type of situation-especially since the survivor of sexual assault should largely control what happens-but we need a skeleton of steps to help handle this type of situation. Members of any organization should all have political education on both rape and sexual assault and how to deal when you or someone you know has been raped. Organizations should have a framework so that they are not fumbling around when sexual assault happens. Not having a framework could leave a survivor with little to no support from those whom should be providing as much support as she or he needs.

What can anarchist organizations do in these situations? What do we do if one amongst us is sexually assaulted? What do we do if one amongst us has sexually assaulted someone else? What do we do when both parties are in our organization? I challenge all organizations to consider how to prevent sexual assault from occurring in the first place, how to deal with it if it does, and how to support survivors of sexual assault to the fullest extent possible.

Taking up Women’s Struggle

The struggle against sexism is everyone’s struggle. It affects everyone: men, women and transgendered peoples. It is especially important that anti-sexist men, who benefit from sexism, take up the struggle for womens’ liberation. Just as it is especially important for white people to dedicate themselves to anti-racist struggle and straight people to dedicate themselves to anti-homophobia/heterosexism work, men must dedicate an intense amount of time to anti-sexist work.

For anarchist men, the question is, are you involved with struggles spontaneously taken up by women, led and organized by women, and primarily aimed at other women? If not, why? I have heard the claim that many of the struggles are “too reformist.” In some cases this is my critique as well but I do not see a revolutionary struggle in the United States that is able to aid women in the ways these movements do. The answer is not to ignore these movements but to build new movements within or without that which already exists. Are anarchists creating alternate structures for survivors of sexual assault? Are we able to aid abused women in a revolutionary fashion at this point in time?

Others brush anti-sexist struggle off as “women’s work.” Others do not see anti-sexist struggle as central to the struggle for liberation. Others believe we can wait to challenge sexism when revolutionary change occurs.These analyses must change. If we truly want an egalitarian society then we must begin creating a more equitable movement-along lines of race, class, gender, and sexuality. We must make the anarchist movement a women’s movement. If we want an end to sexism, our work should have began yesterday.

Forward Always, Backwards Never

Anarchists often have a good analysis of the way sexism is “a mesh of practices, institutions, and ideas which have an overall effect of giving more power to men than to women.” Beginning with an institutional analysis is correct, however, we must also translate this into our own thoughts and actions. Only then can all anarchists work together most effectively (at least along gender lines but we must also deal with homophobia, racism and class issues). To create an egalitarian society, our movement must be egalitarian and presently it is not. Working to create revolutionary change must begin today by challenging our sexist, racist, and heterosexist capitalist society. It means challenging that which is in ourselves, our families, our neighborhoods, our communities and our movements. As Kevin Powell said, “Just as I feel it is whites who need to be more vociferous about racism in their communities, I feel it is men who need to speak long and loud about sexism among each other.”

The anarchist movement needs to be more vocal and active in the struggle against sexism. All our lives depend on it.

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