Memoirs of an Italian Terrorist

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From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, there were frequent terrorist acts in Italy, from assassinations and bombings, to kidnappings. While there is some debate over government involvement in using the attacks as a precursor for suppressing radical left-wing movements that advocated “armed struggle,” nothing can take away from the reality that Italy was a violent place. Giorgio, an anonymous member of the “armed struggle,” sent this story to an Italian magazine where it was originally published in 1981.

I came upon this book by accident at the library, but after reading the jacket, felt it would be an interesting read in light of earlier studies on the Weather Underground in the United States. However, this book is not an exploration of the politics and analysis that motivated Giorgio to turn to armed confrontation, rather it is an account of the isolation of living underground. Giorgio managed to write a surprisingly revealing glimpse into his own psychological condition, despite the necessity of keeping many details of his activities a secret for security reasons. His honesty and refusal to glamorize the life of an underground radical is refreshing, while his criticism of such a life is unrelenting. Certainly, there is no sense that Giorgio regrets his decision, but he presents an honest appraisal of the life when he states that A-the life we lead does not encourage solidarity, but rather tension, resentment, and constant conflict–

Crimes Of Style: Urban Graffiti and the Politics of Criminality

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Jeff Ferrell’s Crimes Of Style: Urban Graffiti and the Politics of Criminality is an intriguing and well-researched look into the social, aesthetic, and criminal aspects of the graffiti subculture in Denver, Colorado. Unlike many other books on the subject that have the simple documentation of the art form as their goal, Ferrell aims at achieving a complete understanding of the graffiti subculture, both of the subculture’s characteristics and society’s criminalization of graffiti. Moreover, Ferrell’s willingness to both participate in the subculture on its own terms and his ability to realistically analyze the culture, make it the best book I have read on the subject of graffiti art.

The first half of the book describes the graffiti subculture, covering the various art forms, for example, discussing the differences between pieces and throw-ups, the logistical aspects of writing graffiti–how some crews paint and how people tag, and discussing the social and communicative aspects of graffiti, such as the relationships between people in the graffiti scene and the way in which art functions as a form of communication connecting the subculture. While the book is centered on the somewhat unlikely location of Denver, in that Denver is not well-known for its graffiti scene, much of the discussion is universal enough that it remains relevant for people wanting to learn more about the graffiti scene as a whole. Ferrell relies on both his firsthand experience and numerous interviews with graffiti artists to develop his discussion of the graffiti scene. Of the books I have read on graffiti, Crimes of Style is the most balanced–at once capturing the allure of writing graffiti while remaining realistic in assessing the subculture’s limitations.

The second half of the book focuses on the criminalization of graffiti, by looking at the efforts of the city of Denver to criminalize graffiti and in the final chapter, presenting a framework for which this criminalization can be understood. Ferrell develops the idea of “anarchist criminology” to explain why city officials in Denver find graffiti to be such a threat, as it seems unlikely that city officials could consider people spray painting artwork on walls and other surfaces as a threat to the power structure. While Ferrell never makes the case that graffiti is directly threatening the governmental power structure, the analysis of graffiti culture from within the framework of anarchism is quite useful, as it allows one to address the ways in which graffiti is fundamentally challenging–the disregard for private property, its participation in the debate between what constitutes private space and the best use of that space, and the frequent glorification of criminality within the subculture. It would be easy for Ferrell to project a political context onto graffiti that is not there, as many academics do when they drone on about how subcultures are a manifestation of various cultural and political theories. To his credit, Ferrell does not do this, remaining cognizant of the fact that most writers do not see graffiti as fitting into some greater political framework. Nevertheless, his theorizing is intriguing and its analysis is beneficial to understanding the subculture, and perhaps more importantly, in the event that graffiti writers read this book, it may encourage them to develop a more comprehensive analysis of the potentiality of their actions.

As a result of his actual participation in the graffiti subculture, Ferrell is able to keep Crimes of Style from being a dull academic monograph written from the distant confines of the university milieu–over-analyzing a subculture and stripping it of its vitality–a phenomenon which is all to common in academic treatments of subcultures. Consequently, Crimes of Style is an interesting read for both those who are involved in or are interested in getting involved in the graffiti subculture, as well as academics who are approaching the subject from an interest in cultural studies or criminology.

Jeff Ferrell, Crimes Of Style: Urban Graffiti and the Politics of Criminality, (Northeastern University Press, 1996).

Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background

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Sacco and Vanzetti are probably the two most well-known anarchists in US history, about the only time anarchism is mentioned in most textbooks, whether at the high school or university level, is within the context of the Sacco and Vanzetti case, or more rarely, with the assassination of President McKinley by an supposed anarchist, Leon Czolgosz. The fact that these three are the most well-known anarchists, has gone a long ways towards reinforcing the stereotype that first emerged in the late 1800s that anarchism means little more than throwing bombs and advocating “propaganda by deed.”

Avrich’s examination of Sacco and Vanzetti does not focus on their trial; but rather, on the Italian anarchist milieu in the United States in which Sacco and Vanzetti were active participants. As a result, this book is a valuable look a side of anarchism that certainly contributed to both the public suspicion of anarchism and the difficulties faced by contemporary anarchists in moving anarchism beyond the extreme margins of society. For this book, Avrich examined a number of Italian sources from both the Italian anarchist movement in the United States and Italy and as a result, he was able to develop a well-documented history of the Galleanist anarchist movement. The Galleanists were a group of Italian anarchists that coalesced around Luigi Galleani, forming one of the most militant anarchist sects in the United States.

In explicating the Galleanist movement and Sacoo and Vanzetti’s role in that movement, Avrich makes it clear that while Sacco and Vanzetti were quite likely innocent of the robbery they were put to death for, they were active participants in the Galleanist movement, and consequently, likely played a role in the series of bombings undertaken by that movement during the 1910s and 1920s. Those who are interested in Sacco and Vanzetti themselves will probably not find this book all that helpful, as it primarily focuses on the movement in which they participated. However, that makes it an incredibly important book for people interested in the history of anarchism in the United States. While Avrich’s focus on Sacco and Vanzetti is limited, anyone who is seriously interested in understanding the Sacco and Vanzetti case must take into account their involvement in the Italian anarchist movement and this is the only book I am aware of that gives that context.

Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background, (Princeton University Press, 1991).

A New World In Our Hearts: 8 Years of Writings from the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation

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I came into anarchism in 2000, two years after Love and Rage came to an end, and thus I have no knowledge of the various splits, the history of the organization, and the work they did (or did not do as the case may be), that have been cited in other reviews of this book, most notably the review that appeared in The Northeastern Anarchist.

Indeed, given the political make-up of the area in which I live, anarchism, while informing my participation in various non-anarchist groups I have worked with and helping to shape my own actions, has not been something I have been able to work towards beyond advocating an all-encompassing critique of the capitalism. Similarly, I have not been involved in the current debates around anarchism, for example platformism versus the anti-organizational tendency, because they have little bearing on my work here. While I am committed to the belief that anarchism currently offers the best potential framework for humanity’s collective liberation, I also believe that other revolutionary traditions must be analyzed and that anarchist theory and practice must be greatly improved if it is to have any relevance to people who do not consider themselves anarchists.

From the limited selection of essays in this book (only 130-odd pages from a group that put out a newspaper for 8 years), it is clear that Love and Rage made a serious effort to expand the base of anarchist theory. While this expansion may have led some members away from anarchism, I find this book to be one of the most important texts I have read relating to anarchism. My biggest complaint about anarchism has always been that most of the body of anarchist theory is over fifty years old, and thus has limited relevance to contemporary struggles. The essays in this book bring the body of theory up to the 1990s, and while I would argue that some of these essays move ìbeyondî anarchism and into the realm of Marxism, they are nonetheless important to read, and any contemporary anarchist is likely to gain much more from reading them than picking up another dusty old Kropotkin book (this is of course not to say that knowledge of the historical roots of anarchism is not valuable, indeed I think that reading older texts is important, yet at the same time, the fact that much of what I have read on anarchism is over ninety years old says a lot about the problems anarchism faces).

There are many criticisms to be made of the book–a limited selection of essays, the acknowledged primacy of a certain type of politics, and the absence of writings by women–but hopefully another book will be published that makes up for this one’s shortcomings, but in the interim, read this book.

Roy San Filippo, ed., A New World In Our Hearts: 8 Years of Writings from the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation, (AK Press, 2003).

Memoirs of an Italian Terrorist

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From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, there were frequent terrorist acts in Italy, from assassinations and bombings, to kidnappings. While there is some debate over government involvement in using the attacks as a precursor for suppressing radical left-wing movements that advocated “armed struggle,” nothing can take away from the reality that Italy was a violent place. Giorgio, an anonymous member of the “armed struggle,” sent this story to an Italian magazine where it was originally published in 1981.

I came upon this book by accident at the library, but after reading the jacket, felt it would be an interesting read in light of earlier studies on the Weather Underground in the United States. However, this book is not an exploration of the politics and analysis that motivated Giorgio to turn to armed confrontation, rather it is an account of the isolation of living underground. Giorgio managed to write a surprisingly revealing glimpse into his own psychological condition, despite the necessity of keeping many details of his activities a secret for security reasons. His honesty and refusal to glamorize the life of an underground radical is refreshing, while his criticism of such a life is unrelenting. Certainly, there is no sense that Giorgio regrets his decision, but he presents an honest appraisal of the life when he states that “the life we lead does not encourage solidarity, but rather tension, resentment, and constant conflict,” a reality that no doubt is in direct opposition to the feelings that motivated his actions. He is also strikingly realistic about the potential failure of their movement, admitting that the likely outcome is prison–or worse.

My main problem with this text came from a lack of knowledge of regarding the historical context. While Antony Shugaar provides an introduction that attempts to explain the intricacies of the various radical groups, of both the left and the right, that operated during the time when Giorgio was active, I found his introduction to be rather muddled and not as helpful as I would have like. Giorgio’s story is interesting, but without a developed understanding of the reasons that some left-wing groups turned to armed struggle, it remains little more than that.

Giorgio, Memoirs of an Italian Terrorist, trans. Antony Shugaar, (Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003).

Living My Life

I would argue that Emma Goldman’s Living My Life is the most important contribution of United States anarchists to the global anarchist canon. In terms of both her dedication to promoting anarchism and feminism, and the extraordinary life she led, Emma Goldman’s autobiography is unparalleled among other writings by anarchists from the United States. I also think this book can be read as a challenge to present anarchists. Who among us can honestly say that have put forth a genuine effort to make anarchism an issue as it was at the time of Emma Goldman and her contemporaries?

Moreover, this book, by virtue of Goldman’s extraordinary life and her accessible writing style, should appeal to non-anarchists who are simply interested in history, especially those seeking to move beyond the limited scope of history taught in high schools and universities. For those of us who have read about the radical and reform movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Emma Goldman’s book is an entertaining look at various radicals, as she encounters Eugene Debs, Jane Adams, Johann Most, Voltaraine de Cleyre, and numerous others, and that is just in the first volume.

I highly recommend reading both the first volume, which focuses primarily on her life in the United States, as well as the second volume, much of which is dominated by her experience in Russia after the Bolshevik revolution and her subsequent disillusionment.

Emma Goldman, Living My Life, (A.A. Knopf, 1931).

Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising

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I was not expecting a lot from this book, after reading Naomi Klein’s Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate, I was somewhat skeptical that a book could effectively capture the energy, hope and frustration of the anti-globalization movement.

However, I was presently surprised by Starhawk’s book. She has attended most of the major protests since the Seattle WTO meetings, and more importantly, she has been an active participant in the various direct actions that have taken place. Her accounts of the protests are interesting, and while they usually discuss the actions of the pagan cluster, that discussion is always rooted in the larger context of what else took place at the protests.

The last part of the book, a collection of writings dealing with direct action and non-violence, is what really impressed me. She is able to move beyond the usual polarized discussion of non-violence versus violence debate (a debate in property destruction usually constitutes “violence”) and address the issue in a refreshing manner. While I disagree with the position of non-violence, Starhawk has a lot to say about the reality of violence in the context of anti-globalization protests and how it is ultimately a tactic that will fail in the face of the state’s power.

Starhawk, Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising, (New Society Publishers, 2002).

The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground

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Earlier this year, I read an anthology published by Ramparts Press back in the early 1970s with a collection of writings by and about the Weatherman faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Due to the age of the book, it naturally focused more on Weatherman as opposed to the Weather Underground, as many of the actions undertaken by the Weather Underground took place after the publication of the Weatherman anthology.

The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground is the only book I have found that attempts to create a history of the Weather Underground and the Weatherman, and unfortunately, it does not accomplish the task as well I would have hoped. There are certainly problems with the tactics of the Weatherman/Weather Underground as well as with their theoretical writings, but I still feel that a good history of the movement is necessary if “the left” in the United States wants to learn from the errors of the Weather People. The main problem with this book is that it lacks depth, especially in terms of its look at the theory that informed the actions of the Weather People. Jacobs fails to make a detailed analysis of Weatherman theory compared to other groups at the time, as the analysis presented in the book lacks depth. Moreover, the book relies primarily on secondary sources (although he did interview some former members of Weatherman), many of which I was already familiar with due to my reading of Weatherman.

Despite its flaws, The Way the Wind Blew is an important book for the time being because it is the only book that documents the history of Weatherman/Weather Underground. However, I highly suggest that anyone interested in the group read both The Way the Wind Blew and Weatherman, as the two volumes together will allow one to judge the historical and theoretical significance of the group.

Ron Jacobs, The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground, (Verso, 1997).

Love in the Days of Rage

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I was pleased to find this book, a fictional account of two lovers living in France during the revolutionary period of May-June 1968. One of them is an anarchist banker, with all the contradictions that such a title implies, and the other is a professor at L’Acadamie des Beaux Arts in Paris. Much of the book traces the tension between different views of how one best can participate in and support the revolutionary students.

I have to admit, the primary reason I enjoyed this book was its setting–I find the May-June events to be fascinating. The book captures the spirit of the events pretty well, including many of the famous graffiti slogans that were found on Paris walls, incorporating many of the events that took place, and relaying the overall context of the events quite well. As a piece of historical fiction, it works well and for people who are familiar with the events, it is an entertaining read–I found myself reading it in one sitting (it’s short at 118 pages), eagerly turning the pages to see how Ferlinghetti would work in the various philosophies present in May-June 1968.

However, like most works of fiction, there are some errors. The most striking error is found in a passage where Annie, the professor, finds herself marching in the middle of a group of International Situationist marching under the banner of philosopher Henri LeFebvre, who had planted the early seeds of revolt among his students in Strasbourg with his manifesto “on the misery of student life.” While there is no date given to verify the accuracy of this statement, it seems highly unlikely as the Situationists had a falling out with LeFebvre in the early 1960s and the “manifesto” being referred to is most likely the Situationists’ own pamphlet, On the Poverty of Student Life.

Even with a few errors, this was an entertaining and fast read, one that will be especially enjoyable for people who are fascinated by France in May-June 1968.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Love in the Days of Rage, (E.P. Dutton, 1988).

Seven Red Sundays

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While I am generally not a fan of fiction, I often find myself gravitating towards novels that have a “radical” undercurrent in them or that take place within revolutionary periods. It was for this reason that I picked up Sender’s a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0929587294?ie=UTF8&tag=medmou-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0929587294″>Seven Red Sundays, a novel written in 1936 during the revolutionary upheaval in Spain and the Spanish Civil War.

The subject of the novel is a group of revolutionaries in Madrid who are affiliated with the FAI (a Spanish anarchist organization) and what happens after a seven-day period. The upheaval begins with the murder of their comrades at a syndicalist meeting, followed by a general strike that throws the countries into a chaos–a situation in which it is unclear as to whether or not there will be a revolution or if things will return to normal. During this period, the characters engage in various tactics including sabotage and distribution of literature, all while working towards the goal of a libertarian (anarchist) Spain.

The book does an excellent job of capturing the revolutionary spirit of Spain and the periods of euphoric hope and despair that often accompany revolutionary periods. There are passages that are intensely beautiful in the novel, but there are also many that are rather bland, although this could be a conscious effort by the author to capture both the hopes and disappointments of revolutionary periods. While this novel is by no means bad, and indeed has a rather innovative writing and narrative style for the time, I think that George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia is a much better work for those that are searching for a fictional treatment of the revolutionary Spain.

Ramon J. Sender, Seven Red Sundays, (Elephent Paperback, 1990).