                        No Justice, No Peace, No Excuse
                               BAD Broadside #7

         Since late April, much has been written in the left and anarchist
     press about the acquittal of the cops who beat Rodney King and the
     beatings, killings, and stealing that followed shortly afterwards in 
     Los Angeles. As could be expected most of the leftist press either 
     endorsed or apologized for the violence committed by the residents of 
     LA, while justly condemning that of the LA Police Department. What is
     more distressing, but no less surprising, is the fact that some of the
     anarchist press, as well, has either supported or been unwilling to 
     criticize the beatings and killings that took place in LA on April 29
     and the following days.

         During the "uprising" or "rebellion," as leftists and many 
     anarchists are fond of calling the events in LA, people of many 
     different colors were beaten and/or killed, for no reason other than 
     hatred; hatred sometimes based on racist feelings, sometimes simply 
     based on viciousness and lack of respect for the lives and property of
     others. Few of those attacked were cops and none of them were 
     politicians, judges, or even jurors in the trial of the cops who beat 
     King; they were primarily people going about their own business who 
     were unlucky enough to cross the path of their attackers. The 
     businesses, homes, and meeting places of many people, again, people of
     various colors, were trashed, burned and stolen from, including the
     Aquarian bookstore, the oldest black bookstore in the united states, 
     and the First AME Church, the oldest black congregation in LA. These 
     were not generally the businesses, homes, or institutions of the
     wealthy, but the small shops of neighborhood businesspeople and the 
     homes of poor people.

         Is this what the revolution means to the left in the united 
     states? Is this the kind of society anarchists wish to build?

         From June Jordan in The Progressive, to the editor of The 
     Libertarian Mutualist, to Barbara Smith and Phill Wilson in Gay 
     Community News, to the anonymous anarchists who produced LA Today, to
     the writers in The Revolutionary Worker, leftists and anarchists have 
     defended, and "understood," and explained, and excused this hatred and
     violence.  They blame Reagan and Bush and racism and the courts and 
     the cops and the firefighters for the destruction and murder in LA. 
     Not one of them has said beating and killing other people who have not
     initiated or planned to initiate violence against another person is
     wrong, regardless of what happened in the courts earlier that day. The
     writers in LA Today were blunt enough to label the violence in LA as
     not only justified, but necessary, while the editor of The Libertarian
     Mutualist was moved to "commend the brave perpetrators of random 
     violence for being right on target."  Neither have any of these 
     writers said burning down other people's homes and shops is wrong. 
     Ayofemi Folayan, in Sojourner, even implicitly blamed the fire 
     department for the fires in LA, despite the fact that firefighters 
     were being attacked when they tried to do their job, instead of
     holding those who lit them responsible. They all apologize for
     (in the words of Anti-Authoritarians Anonymous) "the excesses
     committed by a population enraged beyond measure," as if rage is an
     excuse for murder.  

         When a man, frustrated by his job and life in general, beats his
     girlfriend, do these people call on us to understand his rage? When 
     cops, enraged by the refusal of one of their victims to obey their 
     orders beat the shit out of him, are we expected to understand their
     rage? No, of course not. In such circumstances, we are expected to 
     hold these violent individuals responsible for their actions and 
     condemn them accordingly. The events in LA were no different. The 
     haters there were no more defensible than the cops who bashed Rodney
     King.

         The reason these writers were willing to defend the perpetrators 
     of the violence in LA is because they apply a double standard to 
     people, a racist and class-biased double standard. They seem to 
     postulate that, because of institutional racism and economic 
     inequality, black and/or poor people are incapable of making the same
     moral choices that non-black and/or non-poor people make, and are 
     therefore not responsible for the violent acts that some of them 
     engage in. On the other hand, many of these leftists consider white
     people universally responsible for the actions of some people who are
     white, and therefore, in their moral system, all white people are fair
     targets for the "rage" of the "oppressed." As someone wrote in LA 
     Today, "We have to realize that the conditions people of color suffer
     under in this country fully justify any act of resistance they choose
     to take, even if it "takes out" a few of our kind ("our kind" meaning
     whites, anti-racists and racists alike). Some of the victims may be 
     good persons, activists, good friends or lovers, but we must be 
     careful to lay the blame where it belongs: not on Black[sic] people 
     but on the racist white capitalist system itself. In the blinding 
     anger of insurrection people don't stop to ask your class credentials
     or your opinions on racism: if you're white you're a target. This is 
     to be expected  Not fun, but expected." Note that they say that racist
     murder is "not fun."  They never say it is "not good."

         Poor and/or black people, despite having fewer options in a number
     of areas in their lives, due both to racism and restrictive laws, 
     still are capable of making choices about their actions, and are 
     responsible for the consequences of their decisions, just as other 
     people are. To think otherwise is to infantilize black people and/or
     poor people, to consider them less fully human than other people. Such
     thinking lays the basis for parentalistic interventions in their lives
     by the state, ensuring their continued dependence and poverty. Despite
     the fact that leftists blame the state and white people for the 
     violence and destruction in LA, they turn to the state (run primarily
     by white people) to remedy the situation, not by leaving people alone,
     but by becoming more involved in people's lives. They support
     government housing, government jobs, welfare, government-funded and 
     regulated child care, government funded drug "treatment," more
     black cops, and other government-centered programs and activities. If
     racist government is the problem, how can it be depended upon to 
     change things to the benefit of poor black people? Getting government
     out of the way is the only thing that will lead to the changes that 
     can produce an improvement in the lives of people in LA. One important
     first step would be abolition of laws which restrict the entry of poor
     and/or black people into various jobs. Taxi regulations which 
     constrict the transportation market, licensing of hairdressers, nurses
     and other occupations which excludes people who can+t afford 
     government-certified training programs or licensing fees, and zoning 
     laws which prevent people from working out of their homes or setting
     up shops in some areas are all forms of government intervention in our
     economic life which keep many black people in poverty. Another area
     where state intervention is harming poor people is housing. 
     Government-protected titles to abandoned property prevent people from
     homesteading and developing empty buildings, forcing them to rely on
     dirty, dangerous government housing. Additionally, drug laws, which
     criminalize a voluntary, private activity, promote the violence and 
     theft that devastate many neighborhoods where black people live.
     Encouraging people to rely on themselves instead of the state can lead
     to self-sufficient, independent, and, hopefully, more rebellious 
     people; people who will rebel against the real evils in society, the 
     government and its laws, courts, cops, and military, not their 
     neighbors and other non-coercive people.

         The events in LA pushed leftists and anarchists to show where they
     stand, and, unfortunately, too many of them are standing on the wrong
     side. Leftists have been embracing government, racism, nationalism, 
     murder, and destruction as the means to a free society at least since 
     1917. Historically, however, anarchists have talked of the need for
     consistency of means and ends, i.e., only moral or ethical means can
     yield moral or ethical results. But the anarchists who produced LA
     Today and The Libertarian Mutualist and those who share their views,
     expect us to believe that murder, assault and theft today will somehow
     lead to freedom and anarchy in the future. The experience of the
     authoritarian socialist movement has put the lie to such ideas, but
     apparently many anarchist are slow to learn. Unless anarchists develop
     a critique of the welfare state, abandon their leftist racism, and
     encourage people to rely on themselves and assume responsibility for 
     their lives, there will be little to distinguish them from the rest of
     the authoritarian left, their anti-statist posturing notwithstanding.
     Only by encouraging libertarian actions in the present can we have any
     hope of a libertarian future.


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                                July, 1992
