Temporary Autonomous Zones: Anarchist Gatherings, 1988-2017

Lesley Wood, May 9, 2017

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Social movement research has spent little time on such events, given as they fall outside of the framework of campaigning, protest or organizational work. However, such events are ‘eventful’ in that they can transform movement networks, identities and practices (Sewell, della Porta). As spaces where activists converge, they are important for diffusion, solidarity, learning, strategizing and networking that affect the shape, trajectory and capacity of movements. Anarchist gatherings since the 1980s built layers of ties between cities, movements and organizations and experimented with practices, modes of communication and theorizations. The changing form they take reflects the shifting fields and habituses that these anarchists inhabit. If one examines the form and content of these events, we see shifts in the way that anarchists define and enact the relationship between prefiguration and confrontation. We see shifts in how anarchists try to ‘build the new world in the shell of the old.”

Movement practices are shaped and reshaped by the relationships and logics of the social movement field, and how these fields are tied to broader social dynamics. This approach to understanding social practice draws on the relational work of Bourdieu, Nick Crossley and Charles Tilly. They show how practices are the result of struggles amongst different actors with different understandings (identities, habitus) for various forms of capital. Tilly’s work on social movement repertoires is well known, showing how the relational ties of ordinary people and between them and other actors and authorities alter social life and thus the practices of protesters. This relational realist research has shown how the changes to political, economic and social life led the march, rally, petition, delegation, mass meeting and special purpose association to become the standard protest repertoire (1995, etc). Tilly’s later work illustrates how these broader transformations of social life played out on the ties between collective actors and their collective identity. While most of these observations are done on the contentious claimsmaking activity of movements, this approach can also be used to examine the less visible work of meeting, playing and learning.

Any social movement field is shaped by the larger context. We know that any particular social movement interacts with other co-present movements in any time and place (Mische 2002, Krinsky 2008). Considering the totality of all movements operating in a particular time and place, McCarthy and Zald (1977) described a ‘social movement sector’. Nick Crossley (2003) used Bourdieu’s framework to animate the relationships between these different actors within this sector, describing it as a field of social movements. Both approaches recognize that the practices and logics of particular movements are influenced by their internal and cross movement interactions, through learning, competition and collaboration. Such a lens helps to explain why and how forms and practices of movements change through time. I’ll use this approach to examine the changing anarchist gatherings.

Anarchism became visible as a strand of left wing European movements during the late 19^th century. There was a debate within socialist movements over the importance of forming political parties and gaining state power in order to challenge capitalism. Anarchists argued that seizing the state would lead to the movement simply becoming the new oppressors. The movement spread internationally with European immigration, through migrating radicals, and through anti-colonial and anti-imperialist movements. They formed organizations, institutions and publications.

Prefigurative experiments are intended to allow the building of strong movements that can counter state power ethically and sustainably. However the emphasis on, ‘principles over plans’ can mean that explicit discussions of strategy can be framed as ‘unethical’ or problematic. The most enthusiastic proponents of prefiguration, spontaneity and freedom frame the inverse of these values as structure, organization and strategy. Dixon, in his study of anti-authoritarian movements, argues that anarchists worry that they may sacrifice their ‘core beliefs and values in order to win. ’ As a result, when this worry becomes pervasive, energy may be given more to the development of counter-cultures and counter-institutions, than towards thinking about how to affect the larger world (Shotwell, Dixon). This puzzle is one which is explored in the form and content of the three kinds of anarchist gatherings over the past thirty years.

Until 1986, there were no other multi-tendency, national or continental gatherings in the US or Canada, when the 100^th anniversary of the Haymarket incident occurred. That opportunity launched a new style of anarchist gathering which was multi-tendency, relatively large, and combined skill building workshops, information sharing sessions on various campaigns, networking activities, a protest, cultural events, and the exchange of books, art and other materials. This model was replicated in 1987, 1988 and 1989 as continental gatherings, and in many other cities in the Americas and beyond as local and regional events.

In 1996, a second series of anarchist gathering began, again in Chicago. This event coincided with the Democratic National Convention. Like the first model, it included skill building workshops, information exchange, a protest, and various cultural, musical and media events. However although not a decision-making space, the planning process had articulated some basic assumptions about anarchist strategy, organizing the content of the gathering in ways to facilitate the development of three areas - community organizing, alternative economic institutions, and building revolutionary movements. This model was replicated in 1998 in Toronto.

In 1996,a third model was established – that of the anarchist bookfair. Modelled on similar bookfairs in the UK, the Bay Area Bookfair made central the distribution and exchange of anarchist publications, with a smaller number of workshops, panels and cultural events. Since that time, bookfairs have been held in 60 cities internationally – with annual events in 10 cities in Canada, and 9 cities in the US.

These are not the only types of non-decision-making anarchist gatherings of course. There are gatherings of Anarchist People of Colour (2003 – national, plus regional and local), and regional and local events. There are campaign related events, and Earth First! Rendez vous, and direct action training weekends. Most recently there have been a series of anarchist academic events, including the conferences of the North American Anarchist Studies Network. The three forms examined here are the broadest styles of anarchist gathering. They reflect the different moments, and the logics of those times and those places. These themselves were shaped by broader overlapping, political, social and economic dynamics. I’ll review the features of each model, paying particular attention to the way each form treated prefiguration and strategy.

Gatherings 1986-9

In 1986, the world was a bipolar one. Neoliberalism was on the march, and the welfare state was under attack. Ronald Reagan was endorsing Star Wars missile defense systems, Brian Mulroney was proposing free trade agreements and Margaret Thatcher was whipping up nationalist fervor in her Falklands War. The Cold War rumbled on. There were a variety of active left campaigns, but it was not a high moment for left wing social movements. The strongest movements of the time may have been feminist, anti-nuclear and environmental movements. Many anarchists were more involved in subcultural ‘scenes’ of punk rock than they were actively organizing around particular targets. Nonetheless, despite intense animosity between anarchists, the Revolutionary Communist Party, and other communist, and socialist groups, anarchists begin to gain momentum. When 100 year anniversary events of the Haymarket riot, and massacre were announced, anarchists in Chicago met. Part of their ambition is to counter the socialist, communist and liberal narratives about Haymarket.

A document that compiled activist voices from the event includes this recollection by a member of the IWW (International Workers of the World):

“Planning got underway with a May Day 1984 planning meeting called by Impossible Books (and endorsed by several groups around the country), held at Chicago's Autonomy Center,and drawing maybe 2 dozen anarchists from throughout the midwest. It was a disjointed meeting that suffered badly from its lack of organization--a problem that was to continue, albeit not in quite so extreme a fashion--and structure. Chicago anarchists wanted a mass anarchist manifestation--where demonstrations would show that the movement was still alive, and where there would be many opportunities for folks to get together and talk/socialize. Fifth Estate argued for an orgiastic celebration of life--I was never quite sure what they meant, but it seemed to revolve around guerrilla street theater. Some people argued for an anarchist conference. A few of us Wobs were present, and we argued for a series of events including demonstrations, cultural events, etc. and a Revolutionary Labor Conference drawing in unions and workers' groups from around the world that stand in the tradition of Haymarket to discuss ways of rekindling a mass revolutionary labor movement including fighting for the four hour day.

In the end, the event attracted 300-500 people from 28 different collectives to Chicago (Chicago Tribune). In addition to cultural events, and a protest, there were a dozen or so workshops on topics including technology, punk rock, gender politics, raising children, pornography, ecology, and one entitled Building the anarchist movement.” One participant named Kathy describes her experience:

My overall feeling while in Chicago was one of exhilaration. My mind was racing the

whole time. I didn't think of things like food or sleep for most of the four days, and while I knew I was running myself ragged, it was worth it. So many amazing experiences, so many incredible anarchists from so many different places! My major regret was probably that there was never a clear space for people to talk about where they were from, and what they were doing there. This happened informally in small groups and one-on-one conversations, but I was not outgoing enough to meet lots of people just by walking up and saying, "hi. "The gathering seemed to be a pretty good mixture of demonstrations, pre-arranged workshops, spontaneous workshops, cultural events like plays and concerts, and just plain hanging out, talking and partying. It definitely was not overstructured!

number could be higher, as people were constantly coming and going. It was a pretty

diverse group in age, background and expectations. There were many young people, in their late teens and early 20s, also many in their late 20s, 30s and 40s, and a few who were older. Almost everyone was an activist in their community. … the vast majority were experienced anarchist activists coming out of the anti-nuclear, anti-intervention, feminist, anti-apartheid, peacepunk and other contemporary movements. And most had a clear understanding of why they call themselves anarchists…
The Chicago Tribune described it as ``the most significant anarchist event held in America in years.” The article listed “independent anarchists, collective anarchists, Christian anarchists, pagan anarchists, communist anarchists, anarcho-feminists and even capitalist anarchists”, as participating in four days of activities and a concluding protest. It was clearly not a Congress or decision-making forum, nor did it prioritize any particular campaign. However it did set a ball in motion, inspiring a network of anarchists with a newsletter and a series of similar and ever-larger subsequent gatherings in Minneapolis (1987) with 250, Toronto (1988) with 800, and San Francisco (1989) with 1500 (Crass 2013, 33).

The habitus or logic of these gatherings as a space of unstructured interaction is reflected in what Hakim Bey aka Peter Lamborn Wilson called – a Temporary Autonomous Zone. In 1991 he wrote about the power of “creating temporary spaces that elude formal structures of control… as a way to ‘release one’s mind from the controlling mechanisms that have been imposed upon it”. These events were needed, in order to create the non-hierarchical social relationships that would make possible a different world. The program for the Toronto Survival gathering explains:

“For us, one of the main attractions of anarchism is that of strong individuals operating within a strong collectivity. We hope that the process within the Gathering will respect both sides of this dynamic. For it is only by respecting both aspects, the self and others, that a clear and open dialogue, with both tolerance and disagreement, can be possible in such a large and diverse group.”

This highlighting of the ethics of clear and open dialogue amongst a diverse group is indicative of this model. The program continues;

“We have also tried to set things up so that there is room for both spontaneity and structure. We hope that there will be as much going on that hasn’t been planned as what has been. We all have the responsibility to ourselves and others to make this a truly inspiring and exciting place to be.”

One European observer of the Toronto 1988 Survival Gathering noted with surprise on the differences between this event and the European anarchist events she was used to. ‘Instead of conference tables and microphones there was an informal structure of workshops which enabled comrades, even in such great number, to find a dimension in which they could participate directly (Weir 1988).’ Indeed there were 63 workshops over two days on subjects from technology to feminism to national liberation and the Middle East. She notes that ‘few could be under the illusion that something specific could come from the workshops themselves’. While she marveled at the enthusiastic participation, and level of activity she was critical of what she saw as “a lack of a revolutionary projectuality, an analysis and methodology.”

Despite this ‘revolutionary projectuality’, each of these events spawned new projects, both local networks or in the case of Toronto, Anarchist Town Halls, and planning meetings for the next event. The plan for the 1989 gathering was developed in part at a meeting in Philadelphia. At that event, clear priorities were being articulated for the content of the gathering. Of the nine themes were developed for workshops – anti-sexism, anti-racism each obtained a whole day dedicated to those dynamics, and the other themes, anarchy/theory, current events, environment/civilization, ourselves, skills, and workers struggles spread throughout the other days. The resultant 1989 Without Borders Conference and Festival was held for five days in July and its program explains that the past few gatherings had had a goal of ‘establishing an ongoing network of North American anarchists’. It continued that ‘the work and play of weaving a North American network/movement has continued.’

The definition of anarchism given in the program emphasizes personal practices and choices. It reads

“Anarchism, the belief and practice that people are capable of directing and living their lives without the imposition of external authority, is one of the greatest visions of humanity. With its emphasis on people acting responsibly, practicing individual and collective direct action, fighting injustice, and creating a freer society, it shines the brightest light in the tunnel of contemporary daily life, which constantly threatens to entomb the world. Vive l’anarchie!’ (Without Borders 1989)

The program included 113 workshops, 16 network meetings, 9 event planning sessions, plus opportunities for “spontaneous events”. Each day began with a general assembly, to meet and share ideas and eat brunch. The event ended in a protest in Berkeley with many arrests. While many participants appreciated the scale of the event, the organizers ended up in debt financially and exhausted.

The distinctive innovation of the Active Resistance model was that the organizers proposed that all participants commit themselves to a particular strategic core for each afternoon of the conference. These core themes were: Cooperatives, collectives and alternative economics; Community organizing; Building Revolutionary Movements: Education and Development. A fourth core developed at the conference around Art and Revolution.

The initial three cores were organized in advance, with detailed plans on how to build towards a shared movement strategy. The introduction to the Community Organizing Core explains that it ‘is designed for anarchists and other anti-authoritarians to use organizing skills that can be used in a geographic or affinity based community.’ Clearly the framework directs anarchists beyond the subculture. Indeed, while some of the facilitators are from anarchist infoshops and free schools, others are affiliated with ACT-UP, and various tenant organizations. In this section, there are two workshops explicitly confronting white privilege in the anarchist scene. While it was not a decision-making space, it is a clear shift away from subculture and prefiguration to strategy approaches, and orient toward building broad movements.” As the program notes, there was a plan to compile a written record of the discussions of the conference, and construct a ‘collective vision and direction for our movement.’ It was intended to ‘articulate the unspoken consensus of Active Resistance and our movement.’ However, whether due to police raids of the organizing spaces, exhaustion or internal dynamics, no such document was ever created.

Nonetheless, the event was influential. It spawned the continental Art and Revolution network, and inspired the formation of the Indymedia network – both institutions that provided infrastructure for the global justice movement. In 1998 a group of activists, including this author attempted to replicate Active Resistance in Toronto. It is striking in its ‘small a’ anarchism. In fact, the name of the event is Active Resistance: A Radical Gathering. Its mission statement describes the event as “A revolutionary left, anti-capitalist gathering and convention uniting theory with practice.” It continues by explaining how the gathering will “provide a forum for community and workplace organizers to discuss strategy, and for the exchange of ideas and knowledge.” It continues

AR will provide space and time for workshops, general assembly, and strategy sessions to build revolutionary movements. AR is working for the creation of autonomous spaces. AR is an anarchist event using anti-authoritarian and democratic process.

In debates about this mission statement amongst organizers, the use of the term anarchism was much contested. The hope was that it offered a process and an ethic, rather than an identity.

AR will work to transform society and ourselves by confronting capitalism, imperialism, colonization, patriarchy, racism, heterosexism, state-violence, and all forms of domination and exploitation by being critical of all systems, institutions, and technologies; based on tactics of resistance and direct action.

AR is working towards an anarchist society which is anti-authoritarian and self-governed, in which people organize themselves from the bottom up on an egalitarian basis; decisions made by those effected by them [sic]; direct democratic control of workplaces, schools, neighbourhoods, towns, and bioregions, with coordination between different groups as needed; a world where people have power over their own lives, bodies and sexuality, where we cherish and live in balance with the earth; where we work and live together cooperatively to nourish community, autonomy and mutual aid. (AR 1998 Mission statement)”

Six hundred people attended from across Canada and the US. The format combined the cores of Chicago, a free school, music, art plenary sessions and a protest. Like the Chicago Active Resistance, the event led to increased ties amongst the US and Canada, and helped to bring together activists who prioritized different strategies including community organizing, building alternative institutions, alternative media, art and revolution, and building revolutionary movements. These would be influential with the growth of the global justice movement, anti-racist and indigenous sovereignty movements. What the Active Resistance model also offered, was increased attention to organizing and campaigning as well as prefiguring an alternative world.

Anarchist Bookfairs

In 1996, the same year as Active Resistance in Chicago, the first anarchist bookfair on the continent took place in San Francisco. Modelled on the bookfairs that had occurred since 1981 in the UK, it was organized by the community surrounding the Bound Together Anarchist Bookstore as its 20^th anniversary event. Some of the organizers had been involved in 1989 and they hoped for something more manageable. Approximately 40 anarchist, situationist, and assorted lefty book and magazine publishers sold and distributed books and other examples of their work. Keynote speakers included sex-positive educator, author and radical feminist Susie Bright, Jello Biafra from the Dead Kennedys, and cutting-edge lesbian author Kathy Acker.

Although not intended to be a continental event, the largest bookfairs do attract participation from around the region. Bay Area Anarchist bookfair has been an annual event since that time and remains the largest such bookfair in North America. The model has spread. The next city to launch a bookfair was Montreal, in 2000. In recent years, there have been anarchist bookfairs in 60 cities. They are most numerous in the UK (12 cities) and Canada (10 cities) and the US (9 cities). There are bookfairs in 22 countries in Europe.

Like the other forms of gathering, book fairs aim to promote anarchist ideas, dialogue and networking. They attempt to do this in prefigurative ways, as the Montreal book fair collective explains:

“The Anarchist Bookfair collective affirms and promotes values of mutual aid, direct democracy, anti-authoritarianism, autonomy and solidarity. We reiterate our opposition to capitalism, imperialism, patriarchy, heterosexism, transphobia, ableism, racism, colonialism, statism and all other forms of oppression; we will not accept anyone to participate in the Anarchist Bookfair that perpetuates or promotes these attitudes.”

However, these events are different to the continental gatherings and Anarchist Resistance events. They are shorter, either one or two days, and not intended to represent the full array of the movement. In many cities there are only a small, and curated set of workshops. Unlike the events discussed earlier, as recurring events, they are organized by a collective who remains relatively consistent from year to year. Bookfairs have as central the distribution of print publications. One of the principles of the Montreal Bookfair notes:

“Priority within the Bookfair itself will be on the written word (books, pamphlets, zines, audio-visual materials) by groups including publishers, distributors, and action-oriented groups as well as individuals. We will also accept, on a case-by-case basis information, participation from community/activist groups, small publishers, and vendors of materials such as buttons, T-shirts or patches who fit within these principles.”

The centrality of the market aspect in these events, and the relative modesty of the aims of book fairs suggest a different moment. Book fairs are more likely to say they are interested in promoting anarchist ideas, and distributing anarchist material, than they are in creating a ‘temporary autonomous zone’. Instead, anarchist ideas are seen as practices, and anarchist activists are assumed to be involved in many struggles in multiple movements. In this light the description of the 2017 Bay Area Anarchist Book fair reads:

The Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair is an annual event that brings together people
interested and engaged in radical work to connect, learn, and discuss through books
and information tables, workshops, panel discussions, skillshares, films, and more!
We seek to create an inclusive space to introduce new folks to anarchism, foster a
productive dialogue between various political traditions as well as anarchists
from different milieus, and create an opportunity to dissect our movements’
strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and tactics.

Similarly, as the 2017 New York Anarchist bookfair organizers explain that in a context of attacks on immigrants, and the rise of the right, ‘The book fair is committed to providing space for the anarchist community to gather, reflect, and build tools to move forward in the making of a really free world.’

Since the 1980s, anarchists gathered in various ways. There is always some form of information sharing and networking; always some sort of social and cultural event and protest; always workshops and always some sort of publication exchange or sales. There are almost always vegan muffins and mediocre fair trade coffee. Despite this consistency, there have been three different formats of these events; Gatherings, Active Resistance and Book Fairs. All three models have helped to build relationships, skills, and shared identities and strategies. They are spaces that continue to experiment with anarchist ideals of free school and prefiguration. Each model offers ways for activists to learn and construct intellectual, physical and emotional knowledge outside of the dominant institutions in various ways. They are important channels of ideas. They inspire publications, networks, institutions and campaigns, and have shaped movement strategies and practices long after the events themselves are finished. This is not to say they are all sweetness and light. These events have also resulted in arrests, assaults, sectarianism, and exclusion. They have reinforced strategies and tactics, both good and bad.

They have also changed in their form, and content through time. If we compare the content and format of the three models, we see three main shifts:

1. 
   From internal emphases on prefiguration and identity caucusing to explicit discussions of strategies for organizing in workplaces, affinity-oriented and identity oriented groups, communities, schools and neighbourhoods. By analyzing the list of workshops in events in 1986, 1988, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2008 and 2016, one sees a decline in discussions of particular identity groups, and an increase in workshops intended to build organizing skills or to discuss particular strategic questions in organizing.
   

2. 
   There is an increasing centrality of the book fair as a market, and space for distribution. This has corresponded with increasing numbers of participants, many of whom may not identify as anarchist, and a shortening of the length of the event.
   

3. 
   The third shift is from continental events that shift location to local events, connected by electronic and social networks. This has allowed for organizing collectives to reflect on their events and alter them in response to local feedback.
   

Anarchist events changed form and content through their interaction with different movements. In the 1980s, these included the anti-nuclear movement, feminism, the New Left, Black power, communist, socialist and indigenous sovereignty movements. The movement field was structured in particularly collaborative and competitive ways. In the 1990s, the tone of interactions changed with socialist movements, and there was more collaboration between queer organizers, women of colour feminists, anti-racists, environmentalists, and anti-prison activists. This shaped the influence of anarchists on the global justice movement, Occupy and current anti-racist and anti-fascist organizing. This also affected the emergence and diffusion of the book fairs as local, but networked; less ambitious spaces that provided a service to the movements.

Today, anarchist events are less about the big ‘A” ‘temporary autonomous zones’ where another world is built, the bigger the better – and smaller scale, local, and networked events where learning occurs, in conjunction with other movements. There is less of an emphasis on ‘principles’ and more on practice. It is less about creating a counterculture, and more about engaging in the world. There are implications of this shift for both anarchist activists, and for those trying to understand social movements more generally.

Anarchist activists can see how the different forms, can achieve different goals. While gatherings like the 1989 Without Borders conference in San Francisco brought people together to network and experiment, and Active Resistance events worked to develop movement, institution building and community organizing skills, and bookfairs are able to both draw resources and be more locally accountable, it is not clear that any of the models alone are able to offer the ingredients for building powerful movements on the scale that we need. While book fairs offer a deepened set of relationships, and their consistent organizing team and location can allow for reflection and intensification of strategy, they can also become routinized and institutionalized in ways that can reproduce exclusions, blind spots and hierarchies.

Social movement researchers can benefit by considering the ways that gatherings represent and shape the strategy and identity of social movements. To understand the global justice movement in North America, it would be wise to examine Active Resistance. To understand the shape of, and tactics of the movement against the imprisonment of Leonard Peltier or Mumia Abu Jamal, an analysis of the collaborations between the anti-racists, animal rights activists and prison abolitionists at the anarchist gatherings of the 1980s would be useful. To understand how student movements became explicitly anti-capitalist, the Montreal Book Fair might be relevant. Although social movement theory tends to neglect these spaces, thinking of them as cultural ephemera, they offer insights into processes of diffusion, solidarity, strategizing, movement learning and networks that cannot easily be understood otherwise.

The desire for a temporary autonomous zone –continues to be appealing. But the framework of another world – or a Temporary Autonomous Zone has pitfalls. The gatherings of the 1980s may inspire connection and openness for some, but it also lead anarchist activists into subcultural spaces that made them reluctant to engage in the broader community and with other movements. When we recognize that any of these autonomous zones are already products of the world, we can better understand their power. We are building another world already. Here and now. And it’s a messy project. In her recent book Against Purity – Living Ethically in Compromised Times, Alexis Shotwell warns us that the obsession with finding pure spaces and practices – spaces outside, will get us into trouble. To understand the power of movements, including anarchist movements, we need to be thinking about movements as interdependent with larger relations. The strategy and practice of movements are both products of history, and producing the future. Gatherings of activists are gatherings of past relations, even while building the world of the new.

References

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