BLOOMINGTON ANARCHIST UNION:  WHO WE ARE AND WHO WE AIN'T
by Joseph Average
October, 1994



BLOOMINGTON ANARCHIST UNION:  WHO WE ARE AND WHO WE AIN'T
	
	The Bloomington Anarchist Union (BAU) does not exist in the sense of a
traditional organization or revolutionary cell, dedicated to little more than
its own self-preservation.  Rather, it is a tidy local umbrella for a number of
Bloomington activists who happen to be anarchists as well, and who need a place
to go now and then to share food, talk, and views.  A typical get-together
includes a potluck dinner, lounging on the porch, and discussion of the
varieties of activities in which we find ourselves involved. 

	BAU was formed in the winter of 1991-92 when a number of anarchists
decided to host a Midwest Anarchist Gathering in Dunn Meadow.  Held in October
of 1992, the gathering drew more than 200 visitors for three days,
demonstrating to us the power of ad-hoc organization, or organization-as-
needed.  Since then, we have more or less chosen to follow that principle, and 
remain loosely affiliated, only tightening our arrangement when we need to get 
something done as anarchists.  The general day-to-day activism, however, takes 
place in the variety of grass roots organizations, affinity groups, and special
 projects to which we devote much of our time.  

	As many people know, Bloomington anarchists have a deeply pragmatic
streak, and a constant desire to accomplish goals set primarily at the local
and regional level.  Rather than forming an anarchist enclave or group that
would do little outside of flyering and polemicizing, and therefore have little
impact on the community at large, most of us are involved in other
organizations, groups, or projects in which we can hope to see tangible results
for our hard work.  In this way, we not only gain from our experience with
diverse projects and learn from grass roots organizers, but we offer our own
anti-authoritarian strategies and visions to those projects.   Far from the
RinterventionsS typical of the old left, in which Leninist drones infiltrate an
organization in order to either recruit members, take it over, or destroy it,
we aim to respect, learn from, and contribute to grass roots projects.  And,
equally far from the isolationism and provincialism which characterizes the
anarchist presence in North America, we find strength and solace in the company
of activists from a diversity of backgrounds and political beliefs. It is this
kind of reciprocity, flexibility, pragmatism, and willingness to learn from
others that we find lacking in the anarchist scene generally.
	The projects we are involved with are many and varied, and range from
successful to faltering.  We definitely have our ups and downs!  A number of us
work intensely on housing issues, as organizers for co-operative housing, as
tenant organizers for self-managed public housing, as grant writers and city
government watchdogs, and as critics of standard urban planning and economic
development. Others work on issues of womenUs health and domestic violence. 
Local anarchists have been instrumental in the foundation of the Bloomington
WomenUr;.s Health Collective, a group dedicated to empowerment, self-education,
direct action, and the proliferation of womenUs health information.  Many
anarchists are involved in building support and numbers for Critical Mass
Rides, and harnessing the demonstrative power of these non-motorized vehicle
fests toward leveraging real and significant changes in urban planning and
arrangements.  
	
	Through the years here in Bloomington you could always find some
anarchists within the variety of progressive and radical grass roots projects,
such as:  the battle against Westinghouse and its toxic waste incinerator, the
inauguration and maintenance of an activist/community center (which struggled
for a year and a half but is now defunct), the campaign to open the secret
books of the Indiana University Foundation and stop its sale of Mississippi
lands to toxic waste "management" corporations, the creation of a community
kitchen, opposition to the Gulf War, Latin American solidarity work, the penal
abolition movement, Crane Naval Base shut-downs, community sponsored
agriculture programs and the development of consumer co-operatives.      
	
	 At present we are working on a number of projects through affinity
groups or with other grass roots organizations.  Besides the activities already
mentioned, we are consolidating a much-needed anti-gentrification group to
parallel the more "respectable" work we do in the housing field.  Moreover, HUD
disinvestment has forced local activists to step up tenant organizing, as the
Federal government pulls public funds out of the projects to sell them off. 
Anarchists in Bloomington are also trying to organize a coalition to produce a
grass roots newspaper dealing with issues of housing, labor, and economic
development from a radical perspective, and are working in a coalition to
establish a Free School.  The Bloomington Womens' Health Collective is
mobilizing to challenge the intervention of abstinence-based (i.e.ignorance-
based) sex education curricula in the schools, and continues to lead the way in
creative income-generation schemes:  selling stickers, magnets, self-produced 
pamphlets, and herbal tinctures, suppositories, and salves.  Local anarchists 
are also involved in Queer groups, agricultural extension/draught-power/tech 
transfer/sustainable agriculture work and Community Sponsored Agriculture.  


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@ ...go now ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall   @
@ come upon you.  Your riches are corrupted...your gold and silver is @
@ cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you...    @
@                              		 --James 5:1-6                @
@ BLOOMINGTON ANARCHIST UNION   PO BOX 3207  BLOOMINGTON, IN  47402   @
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