                     ANARCHY IN MORE THAN THE U.K.
                 Spunk keeps anarchist torch lit on net

                                  by
                            K.K. CAMPBELL


There are lots of politics discussed -- ha! I mean ranted about -- on 
the net. What many newbies are surprised to find is the number of 
radical political perspectives.

At first, they think there's just a disproportionate number of 
"oddballs," but it's not the case. What's different is they get to 
hear/read a disproportionate number of alternative views.

In the "real world," the mass media game is structured to 
deliberately marginalize alternative political voices. Monitor any 
mainstream paper/broadcast and editorial slants become evident. 
Something called the "conventional wisdom" dominates. Journalism 
likes to claim  "objectivity," but that's hype. It's extremely 
ideological. (See Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent or 
Visualizing Deviance: A Study of News Organizations by Ericson, 
Baranek and Chan.)

The horizontal structure of the net means radical political 
perspectives aren't automatically "edited out" per verticalized 
corporate ideology. This is unfamiliar to newbies, thus it appears 
that radical political views -- such as social anarchism -- are more 
prevalent on the net than in "real life." Many think "anarchism" 
means bomb-throwing, nihilistic barbarism and chaos. This is 
centuries-old ruling class disinformation. In crudest terms: 
anarchism is the belief that human beings naturally engage in 
mutually beneficial social interaction if hierarchical power 
structures are not allowed to pervert innate social instinct. The 
state isn't corrupt because it attracts lots of "immoral" people; the 
system breeds corruption by protecting class, strata and privilege.    
           
                          DA KID'S GOT SPUNK

One of the strongest anarchist voices on the Internet is Spunk Press, 
started in late '92. It's only fitting that its founders found each 
other through net.activism.

"We largely met online, via the Anarchy Discussion list and other 
fora," says Ian Heavens 
That mailing list is still moderated by Holland's Jack Jansen 
(jack.jansen@cwi.nl). Americans Chuck Munson and Mikael Cardell, 
editors of Practical Anarchy Online (mjmc@fullfeed.com), rounded 
out the original crew. This Spunk editorial collective can be reached 
at spunk@lysator.liu.se .

Spunk's numbers have grown, members often recruited from Jansen's 
email list -- which is "a good way of people getting involved," 
Heavens says. "Discussion is sporadic but focused."

Their goal is to amass vast digital libraries of famous (and not-so-
famous) works with an anarchist bent, and use the power of the net 
to distribute them far and wide. It holds hundreds of files -- 
available free -- by and about Mikhail Bakunin, William Godwin, 
Emma Goldman, George Orwell, Hakim Bey, Peter Kropotkin, 
Alexander Berkman, Max Stirner, Malatesta, Abbie Hoffman, etc. -- 
including, among my faves, those proponents of enlightenment and 
entertainment through mindfuck, the Situationist International.

Heavens hopes radical publishers will store works in Spunk sites. 
"At the Glasgow summer school on anarchism a few weeks ago, I got 
an encouraging response, and we'll give some U.K.-based radical 
publishers their own directories in Spunk archives," he told eye. 
These archives are reachable via anonymous FTP at 
etext.archive.umich.edu in /pub/Politics. (Note: This site carries 
loads of alternative political material!)

Jansen believes Spunk is unique. "As far as I know, we're the only 
group working this way -- i.e., distributing globally by using the net 
as our communications medium. There are other groups with similar 
subject matter, but they tend to be one-person projects. There are 
also groups who make documents available, like Project Gutenberg, 
but they are funded."  Jansen's Anarchy Discussion list can be joined 
via anarchy-list-request@cwi.nl; Spunk Press list, spunk-info-
request@lysator.liu.se. There's an anarchist web page at 
http://www.cwi.nl/cwi/people/Jack.Jansen/anarchy/anarchy. html 
which will take you to the Spunk page.          
      
                              FREE ANARCHY

There are also lots of electronic publications (ezones). Autonome 
Forum has several (aforum@moose.uvm.edu); Love & Rage 
(lnr@blythe.org); Baklava Autonomist Collective, Wind Chill Factor 
paper/'zine (thak@midway.uchicago.edu); Libertarian Labor Review 
(jbekken@igc.apc.org); Industrial Worker, IWW or Wobblies 
(jditz@igc.apc.org), or Canada's IWW (indwrk@web.apc.org); Arm The 
Spirit (ats@etext.org); Ireland's Workers' Solidarity Movement 
(anflood@macollamh.ucd.ie).      
           
                          MANUFACTURING CHOMSKY

One of the most notable American anarchists (or social libertarians) 
today is MIT linguistic prof Noam Chomsky. In July, a Chomsky 
Archive "officially" came online -- though transcripts of his works 
have circulated the net for years. You can get to it via ftp.cs.cmu.edu 
in the directory usr/cap/chomsky/ (note: no slash at beginning of 
pathname). Via WWW, jump to 
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu:/usr/tp0x/chomsky.html .               

                             LIBERTARIANS

You'll also find lots of Libertarians (big-L) on the net, claiming to
be "anarchists." In actuality, Libertarians are a laissez-faire
capitalist party, only seeking to roll back the state enough to serve
their capital interests. They adhere to current property relations and
desire politicos/police enough to ensure they keep their economic
position. Read alt.politics.libertarian for lots of capitalist
apologia.         

                          MICKEY ANARCHISTS

Oh ya, gotta mention these guys. The net is loaded with .edu sites, so 
you get scads of just-outta-high school kiddies who fancy anarchism 
is telling one's teacher to Eat Shit or fiddling with chemicals in a 
friend's basement. Easily spotted -- nothing but slogans and visions 
of "anarchist society" as some vague artisan, pre-capitalist barter 
society. Take 'em in stride. Often WareZ d00dZ in disguise.            
    
                       INTERNATIONAL LOOMPANICS

An interesting source of alternative/controversial reading material 
is Port Townsend, Washington publisher Loompanics Unlimited 
(loompanx@pt.olympus.net -- no orders by email). It maintains a vast 
catalogue of underground stuff at The Well's gopher site -- 
gopher.well.sf.ca.us . 

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