CrimethInc.

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CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective
Typedecentralized collective
Membership
voluntary association
Websitewww.crimethinc.com

CrimethInc., also known as CWC ("CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective" or "CrimethInc Ex-Workers Ex-Collective"[1]), is a decentralized anarchist collective[2][3][4] composed of autonomous cells. The collective emerged in the mid-1990s[5] – initially as the hardcore zine Inside Front – and began operating as a collective in 1996.[6] It has since published widely-read propaganda for the anarchist movement.[7]

CrimethInc. cells have variously published books, released records and organized large-scale national campaigns against globalization and representative democracy in favor of radical community organizing. Less public splinter groups have carried out direct action (including arson and hacktivism), hosted international conventions and other events, maintained local chapters, sparked riots and toured with multimedia performance art and/or hardcore anarcho-punk musical ensembles. The collective has received national media and academic attention, as well as strong criticism and praise from other anarchists for its activities and philosophy. CrimethInc. has had a long association with the North American anarcho-punk scene due to its relationship with notable artists in the genre and its publishing of Inside Front. It has since expanded into nearly all areas of the contemporary anti-capitalist movement.

Activities

"Police Not Welcome" CrimethInc. community watch sticker.

Activities by CrimethInc. cells have included publishing radical literature and music, while less public splinter-groups have carried out direct action, hosted international conventions and other events, maintained local chapters, sparked riots and toured with multimedia performance art and/or hardcore anarcho-punk musical ensembles. In 2002, a cell in Olympia, Washington staged a five day film festival with skill-sharing workshops and screenings.[8] Cells have also supported various large-scale campaigns with publicity work, including the "Unabomber for President" and the "Don't Just (Not) Vote" election campaigns as well as the protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas of 2003 in Miami, Florida. Individuals adopting the CrimethInc. nom de guerre have included convicted ELF arsonists,[9] as well as hacktivists who successfully attacked the websites of DARE, Republican National Committee and sites related to U.S. President George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign.[10][11] These activities have earned the collective irregular attention from the mainstream news media.[12][13][14]

Convergences

Convergence locations

Since the Summer of 2002, CrimethInc. has hosted annual conventions, termed "convergences", extending an invitation to all who wish to attend. Typically featuring the performances of traveling theatrical troupes, musicians, direct-action and mutual-aid workshops from individual participants, the few-days-long camping trips have attracted coverage in newspaper articles,[15] initiated multiple Reclaim the Streets actions, mobilized large Critical Mass events, and catalyzed many other activities. The 2007 convergence in Athens, Ohio saw an impromptu street party which resulted in a few arrests on minor charges.[15] The Athens News characterized the convergence as "a sort of networking, resume-swapping opportunity for would-be radicals, free-thinkers, Levelers, Diggers, Neo-Luddites and other assorted malcontents."[16]

It is typical of these gatherings to demand that all attendees have something to contribute to the momentum: whether it's bringing food or equipment to share, leading a discussion group, or providing materials with which to write to political prisoners. There has also been a pattern of promoting convergences as festivals, reminiscent of barnstorming flying circuses and traveling sideshows.

Harper's journalist Matthew Power described the 2006 convergence in Winona, Minnesota as follows:

Several hundred young anarchists from around the country had train-hopped and hitchhiked there to attend the annual event known as the CrimethInc Convergence…Grimy and feral-looking, the CrimethInc kids squatted in small groups around a clearing.…[they] were in the middle of several days of self-organized workshops, seminars, and discussions, ranging from the mutualist banking theories of the nineteenth-century anarchist philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, to an introductory practicum on lock-picking, to a class on making one’s own menstrual pads.…CrimethInc’s adherents had come together there because they wanted to live their lives as some sort of solution. They saw “the revolution” not as a final product but as an ongoing process; they wanted not just to destroy the capitalist system but to create something livable in its place.[17]

— Harper's Magazine, March 2008, in Matthew Power

These convergences have been hosted by different groups within the collective each time, typically based on the initiative of local enthusiasts. Every year a different set of policy requests is released from locals in the field, typically encouraging a sober, consensus-based space in which no financial transactions are made. The one firm rule always made clear has been “No police informants.”, a regulation which has been ignored at least twice by the FBI in Des Moines, Iowa in 2004 and in Bloomington, Indiana in 2005.[18]

Philosophy

File:Crimethinc logo Jan2008.png
CrimethInc.'s "Bulb and bones" logo.

Crimethought is not any ideology or value system or lifestyle, but rather a way of challenging all ideologies and value systems and lifestyles—and, for the advanced agent, a way of making all ideologies, value systems, and lifestyles challenging.

— Crimethinc.com[19]

CrimethInc as a loose association represents a variety of political views; the CrimethInc. FAQ asserts that it has "no platform or ideology except that which could be generalized from the similarities between the beliefs and goals of the individuals who choose to be involved—and that is constantly in flux."[5] Anyone can publish under the name or create a poster using the logo; each agent or group of agents operate autonomously. As well as the traditional anarchist opposition to the state and capitalism, agents have, at times, advocated a straight edge lifestyle, the total supersession of gender roles, violent insurrection against the state,[20] and the refusal of work.[21]

CrimethInc. has been described as "inheritors of the political avant-garde",[22] and the collective has acknowledged the influence of the Situationist International.[23] Situationist Ken Knabb has criticized CrimethInc. for presenting simplistic and in some cases false accounts of history in their manifesto Days of War, Nights of Love, and for mythologizing themselves as "a pole of international subversion".[24] For their part, the authors of the book criticized the "exclusive, anti-subjective" nature of history as "paralyzing", advocating in its place a non-superstitious myth.[25] Observers have noted elements of Situationist thought,[26][27] Dadaism,[27] anarcho-primitivism, and post-left anarchy in CrimethInc. writings.

The active participants of CrimethInc. characterize it as a mindset and a way of life first and foremost, rather than as an organization per se.[5] Its main goal is to inspire people to take more active control of their own lives, becoming producers of culture and history instead of passive consumers.[28][29] Those who ascribe to the CrimethInc. philosophy advocate radical ways of living one's life to the end of eliminating the perceived inequities and tyrannies within society. Contributors to publications are generally not credited in respect of an anonymity asserted by participants to be one of the organization's primary values.[5] The name "CrimethInc." itself is a satirical self-criticism about the hypocrisy of revolutionary propaganda (and other "margin-walking between contradictions"[5]) and a direct reference to the concept of "thoughtcrime" developed in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.[5]

Reception amongst anarchists

Since its inception in the mid-1990s, CrimethInc.'s activities and in particular its philosophy has received a mixed reception from other anarchists. Anarchist anthropologist David Graeber and Andrej Grubacic lauded the collective in 2004 as "the greatest propagandists of contemporary American anarchism".[30] Upon the release of Expect Resistance (2007), Chuck Munson identified the group as "one of the more important anarchist projects happening in North America over the past decade", asserting that in its activities the collective had set the standard for "publishing, organizing, instigating, and activism".[31]

The collectives perceived focus on the "terminal boredom of consumer culture" at the expense of the real world condition of the working class,[32] and its fetishizing "the narcissistic side of the 1960s" (Clamor)[7] has lead others in the anarchist movement, such as Libcom.org, to descry the collective as "lifestylists".[33]

CrimethInc begins with the brand name, and ends with the relentless merchandizing of “radical” products on their website. In between there is…an individualist, selfish, and inchoate rebel ideology that eschews work, political organizing, and class struggle. In a world at war and facing terminal crisis, CrimethInc’s transcendental philosophy and ahistorical lightness is a form of intellectual masturbation. Like rootless ex-pats unconnected to the daily life around them, CrimethInc’s lifestylism is a form of self-imposed exile within their own society.

— "Days of Crime, Nights of Horror", Perspectives on Anarchist Theory (2004)[34], in Ryan, Ramor

Red Emma's infoshop has claimed that regardless of the group's politics, "you have to give them credit for helping revitalizing two very vital traditions of radical writing: on the one hand, they've kicked out enough all-encompassing, no-holds-barred, just barely still prose polemical manifestos to make Guy Debord proud, on the other hand, they've also produced some stunning personal narratives of living free in the boxcars and margins of late capitalism."[35]

Publications

The creation of propaganda has been described as the collectives' core function.[17] Among their best-known publications are the books Days of War, Nights of Love, Evasion, Recipes for Disaster: An Anarchist Cookbook and the pamphlet Fighting For Our Lives (of which, to date, they claim to have printed 500,000 copies),[36] the hardcore punk/political zine Inside Front, and the music of hardcore punk bands. Several websites are maintained by individual cells, including Crimethinc.com, a clearing house for CrimethInc. activities operated by the Far East Cell which hosts excerpts from previously published works as well as a blog. CrimethInc. is connected to publishing collectives/organizations with similar ideas, notably the Curious George Brigade which has written a number of publications including Anarchy in the Age of Dinosaurs. In 2005, they began publishing a half-gloss journal, Rolling Thunder, with the byline "An Anarchist Journal of Dangerous Living", which released its fifth issue in 2008. CrimethInc. texts have received wide coverage in the anarchist media and in academic publications.[37][38] [39]

Books

"Ne plus ultra" edition of Days of War, Nights of Love.

CrimethInc. has published three collectively-authored books that collect and expand upon the individual essays produced by the group in a particular period; authors are generally uncredited or credited pseuodonymously.

Letters series

The CrimethInc. Letters series of books are not intended as direct propaganda, but rather as letters to the reader detailing the story of the experiences of the authors.

Related

  • Anarchy in the Age of Dinosaurs (2003) by fellow-travellers Curious George Brigade
  • The Secret World of Terijian (2007) by CrimethInc. North Star
  • Fire & Lightning (2005) by "IvoryBell"/Christopher Hatteras OCLC 68962845
  • In Search of the World: A Traveller's Almanac by "IvoryBell"

Zines / papers

Stenciled graffito in Washington D.C. bearing the slogan of CrimethInc.'s 2004 Don't Just Vote campaign. Image courtesy of the Brian MacKenzie Infoshop

Video

Main article: CrimethInc. Guerilla Film Series, Volume One

In March of 2001, two documentaries from Eugene, Oregon's Pickaxe Productions were published by a CrimethInc. cell: Pickaxe, an eyewitness account of environmental activism in the Pacific Northwest and Breaking the Spell, which documented anarchist activism at the Battle of Seattle in 1999.

At the end of 2005 (a year after the release of Recipes for Disaster), CrimethInc. announced the first volume in a Guerrilla Film Series, a DVD including three feature-length documentaries and a collection of shorts. A few of CrimethInc.'s "thinktank" experiments had been documented on film by the "folk-scientists" themselves, and copies of these lived in relative obscurity until included in the series. CrimethInc. Guerilla Film Series, Volume One included Pickaxe, Breaking the Spell, The Miami Model, two subMedia shorts and three Thinktank documentaries.

Music

CrimethInc. is associated with the North American anarcho-punk scene because of its long relationship with notable musicians in the genre and its publishing of Inside Front, a "journal of hardcore punk and anarchist action".[6] CrimethInc. has released LPs, CDs, and 7"s from a number of bands, including Aluminum Noise,[6] Blacken the Skies, Catharsis,[6] Countdown to Putsch, Face Down in Shit, Gehenna,[6] Newborn, Requiem, Sandman, Froseph, The Spectacle, Timebomb,[6] Ümlaut[6] and Zegota.[6] Academic Stacy Thompson has situated CrimethInc. as "exemplary of a more contemporary and nuanced approach" to the possible forms anarcho-punk could take to resist commodification through aesthetic expression.[6] However, Thompson does not consider the aesthetic choices of the collective to be substantially different from the anarcho- and crust-punk bands released by Profane Existence in the mid-to-late 90s.[6]

Notes and references

  1. ^ "After the Fall: Analysis of the Events of September 11th 2001". Crimethinc.com. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
  2. ^ Gordon, Uri (27-28 May 2005). "Liberation Now: Present-tense Dimensions of Contemporary Anarchism". Thinking the Present : The Beginnings and Ends of Political Theory. University of California, Berkeley. {{cite conference}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |booktitle= ignored (|book-title= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Thompson, Stacy. "Crass Commodities". Popular Music & Society (Oct 2004): 307–322. Retrieved 2007-07-08.
  4. ^ Ludwig, Mike (2007-07-30). "Melee breaks out uptown at end of anarchist confab". The Athens News. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "Frequently Asked Questions". Crimethinc.com. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thompson, Stacy. Punk Productions: Unfinished Business. Albany: SUNY Press. p. 109. ISBN 0791461874.
  7. ^ a b Brandt, Jed. Crimethinc: In Love With Love Itself. Clamor. Retrieved 2008-01-14
  8. ^ Raihala, Ross (2002-12-12). "The heArt and Film Festival". The Olympian. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "3 plead guilty in attempts at arson". The Sacramento Bee. 2005-10-15. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Schachtman, Noah (2004-08-17). "Hackers Take Aim at GOP". Wired. Retrieved 2008-02-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Deagon, Brian (2004-10-22). "GOP Sites Hit By Denial Of Service Attack; Hard To Tell Who Culprits Are". Investor's Business Daily. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Whitehead, Chris (2007-04-13). "How do you say 'dese, dem, dose' in Chinese?; The Mayor's Office of". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2007-07-08.
  13. ^ Childress, Sarah (August 2004). "'Hacktivists' Log On". Newsweek. Retrieved 2007-07-08.
  14. ^ Sege, Irene (2008-03-10). "Pay phones may appear to be gathering dust, but some still use them". The Boston Globe. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2008-03-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ a b Goussetis, Elizabeth (2007-07-31). "Anarchist answers to riot charge". Athens Messenger. Retrieved 2008-02-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Phillips, Jim (2007-09-04). "Good going; you left town for the summer and missed everything". The Athens News. Retrieved 2008-02-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ a b Power, Matthew (2008). "Mississippi Drift" (PDF). Harper's Magazine: 54–63. Retrieved 2008-03-10. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  18. ^ "Confidential Source "Anna"-issued affidavit" (.pdf). United States District Court Eastern District of California. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
  19. ^ "All Traveler Kids Purged From CrimethInc. Membership". Crimethinc.com. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
  20. ^ "Let Me Light My Cigarette on Your Burning Blockade". Crimethinc.com. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
  21. ^ D., Brian. "How I Spent My Permanent Vacation". Crimethinc.com. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
  22. ^ Puchner, Martin (2005). Poetry of the Revolution: Marx, Manifestos and the Avant-Gardes. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford. 320pp., ISBN 978-0-691-12260-1.
  23. ^ Days of War, Nights of Love (2001) , Crimethinc.Workers Collective, ISBN 097091010X
  24. ^ Knabb, Ken. "Comments on CrimethInc. by Ken Knabb". Libcom.org. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
  25. ^ Days of War, Nights of Love (2001) , ISBN 0-9709101-0-X, p. 111–114
  26. ^ Lang, Daniel (2007). ""Give Us the Dumpsters -Or- Give Us Life": Res Derilictae and the Trash of Free Trade". Cultural Recycling. 3 (1). Other Voices. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  27. ^ a b Treesong (2004). Revolution of One. ISBN 9781411614055.
  28. ^ Summerisle (2005). Times of Hate, Times of Joy, Lost Highway, Volume 1. ISBN 9781411665064.
  29. ^ "About CWC: Index". Crimethinc.com. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
  30. ^ Graeber, David (2004-01-06). "Anarchism, or the Revolutionary Movement of the Twenty-First Century". Dissident Voice. Retrieved 2008-02-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  31. ^ Munson, Chuck, "New CrimethInc sequel to Days of War due out soon", 2007-11-02. Retrieved 2008-02-17.
  32. ^ Lee, Butch (2002-11-07). "Would You Shoplift Days of War, Nights of Love?". Retrieved 2008-02-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Text "work-Kersplebedeb.com" ignored (help)
  33. ^ ""Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness" - washing... and brainwashing - CrimethInc". Libcom.org. Retrieved 2008-02-22. {{cite web}}: Text "libcom.org" ignored (help)
  34. ^ Ryan, Ramor (2004) Days of Crime, Nights of Horror, Perspectives on Anarchist Theory. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
  35. ^ "Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse : Expect Resistance: A Crimethinc Field Manual". Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
  36. ^ "CrimethInc. Shareholder Report". Crimethinc.com. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
  37. ^ Doy, Gen (2004). Picturing the Self. London: I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1850434131.
  38. ^ Clark, Dylan, "The Raw and the Rotten: Punk Cuisine", Ethnology, Vol. 43, 2004
  39. ^ Edwards, Ferne (2007). "Gleaning from Gluttony: an Australian youth subculture confronts the ethics of waste". Australian Geographer. 38 (3). Routledge: 279–296. doi:10.1080/00049180701639174. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

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