Building Another Politics: The Contemporary Anti-Authoritarian Current in the U.S. and Canada

ABSTRACT Recent decades have seen the convergence of a variety of anti-authoritarian politics and broader-based movements in the US and Canada. Coming out of this convergence, a growing set of activists and organisers are developing shared politics, practices, and sensibdities based in overlapping areas of work. Those creating these politics compose a political tendency, what I call the anti-authoritarian current, which cuts across a range of left social movements. Broadly conceived, what distinguishes this current is its commitment to combining anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist politics with grassroots organising among ordinary, non-activist people. I argue that the anti-authoritarian current, in effect, budds on the best features of the anarchist tradition whde drawing on substantial contributions from other political formations and movement experiences. Based on indepth interviews with organisers in six North American cities, this essay traces the strands that have led into the anti-authoritarian current and explores the defining principles of its politics. Keywords: anarchism, another politics, anti-authoritarian, organising, prefigurative politics, prison abolitionism, women of colour feminism INTRODUCTION The period leading to die first United States Social Forum in Adanta, Georgia, during the summer of 2007 saw a flowering of endiusiastic discussions in and across movements in the US Under the slogan 'another world is possible, another US is necessary', this historic gadiering brought together more rhan 10,000 people for learning, sharing, and budding movements.2 One important contribution to these discussions was a perceptive article featured in die activist magazine Left Turn by one of its editors, Max Uhlenbeck. An experienced organiser, Uhlenbeck is someone with his finger on the pulse of a lot of dynamic movement activity in North America. He observed: Those of us who are not interested in starting a political party, and have even shied away from cadre organizing of any kind, have found it hard to articulate what exacdy it is we would want to see on the local, regional, or even national level, much less how we might organize towards such a goal ... We know we are critical of the non-profit world - increasingly integrated into the corporate model - as a major vehicle for structural social change. We are critical of the centralized political party structure, whether it be the neoliberal Democrats or the small leftist 'revolutionary sects' that continue to operate in near anonymity around the country. On the other side of the spectrum, the frustrating antiorganizational and sectarian tendencies within many of the contemporary anarchist movements, coupled with the predominantly white subcultures surrounding them, have left much to be desired. The alternative for many of us has been to continue to identify with a broad-based, but still rather vague, political tendency - sometimes described as the 'anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, non-sectarian left'.3 Uhlenbeck, in these precious few phrases, managed to put words to something that many have been discussing, but few have written about at any length.4 Budding on his description, this article is about the 'anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, non-sectarian left' across the United States and Canada. This tendency puUs together a growing set of activists and organisers who are developing shared ideas and approaches based in overlapping areas of work. At the core, what distinguishes them is their commitment to combining anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist poUtics with grassroots organising among ordinary, non-activist people. In doing this, they use many labels to describe themselves - abolitionists, anarchists, anti-authoritarians, anti-capitalists, autonomists, and radicals, among others - and some choose to organise without political labels. Yet, together, they are a political current that cuts across a range of left social movements in North America. …

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