(Anarchist Studies Network Conference 2008)
Peter Seyferth
CrimethInc.’s Lifestyle Anarchism: Is it Revolutionary or just a Petty Bourgeois Prank?
By Peter Seyferth
CrimethInc. is a youthful group of anarchists with roots in Situationism and subcultures like punk rock. In their aesthetically outstanding publications they advocate dropping out of school or work and adopting an ecstatic, fun-seeking, petty criminal counter-cultural lifestyle that they claim is anarchistic and revolutionary.
CrimethInc. has been attacked by several anarchists (mostly adherents of syndicalist or insurrectionist lifestyles) for different reasons: According to those critics, CrimethInc. is a bunch of arrogant, privileged, white middle-class kids. Therefore CrimethInc. has no class analysis or “real theory” and does not understand or explain capitalism fully. They are much too simplistic and reduce society to the tension between having fun and being bored, while they should reduce it to class antagonism. They also ignore the central role of white supremacy. Consequently, CrimethInc. initiates actions that are not only useless (like Food Not Bombs or squatting) and non-threatening to capitalism and the state (because counter-cultures validate the dominant culture), but that are in fact dependent on capitalism’s oppression of non-whites and the poor, and that are hence directed against revolution. What CrimethInc. should do, according to the critics, is to provide serious revolutionary information (about school and workplace unions, about solidarity with struggling communities, about building social centers, and about supporting prisoners and asylum seekers etc.) and to engage in physical attacks on the system (e.g. bombing police stations).
For the most part, these criticisms are reactions to CrimethInc.’s introductory book Days of War Nights of Love (2000). Since then, many books, journals, papers, pamphlets, and other publications have been released by the CrimethInc. collective. In those works they defend their perspective and present it as part of a broader, more inclusive approach to revolution: There is not one objectively right way to overthrow capitalism, but there are many—and this is a strength rather than weakness. The CrimethInc. authors offer an “admittedly cursory analysis of class and declassing” in which they call desertion and refusal “the essence of resistance,” especially since unemployment rates are constantly increasing and workplace organization is further loosing relevance. In numerous “How to…” articles they give most of the serious revolutionary information requested by their critics. Issues of race and gender are dealt with, struggles abroad are given attention to.
In my contribution to the panel and/or publication I will analyze most of the CrimethInc. publications to date. I will concentrate primarily on the possible range of prefigurative politics in fields like class/classlessness, gender, race, and other dividing lines—and how useful CrimethInc.’s recommended “recipes” are. What would one have to add to this joyous and playful lifestyle to make it more threatening and thus revolutionary? To this question I hope I can offer answers that are at least worthy of discussion.
Location: Loughborough University, UK
Event Date: Sep 6, 2008
LIKE ADBUSTERS CRIMETHINC. IS A CONSUMER CULTURE REVOLT THE ANARCHISM OF BREAKING STARBUCKS WINDOWS THE DAY AFTER YOU
WENT FOR AN AMERICANO
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=ANARCHY
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=ANARCHISM
Peter Seyferth
CrimethInc.’s Lifestyle Anarchism: Is it Revolutionary or just a Petty Bourgeois Prank?
By Peter Seyferth
CrimethInc. is a youthful group of anarchists with roots in Situationism and subcultures like punk rock. In their aesthetically outstanding publications they advocate dropping out of school or work and adopting an ecstatic, fun-seeking, petty criminal counter-cultural lifestyle that they claim is anarchistic and revolutionary.
CrimethInc. has been attacked by several anarchists (mostly adherents of syndicalist or insurrectionist lifestyles) for different reasons: According to those critics, CrimethInc. is a bunch of arrogant, privileged, white middle-class kids. Therefore CrimethInc. has no class analysis or “real theory” and does not understand or explain capitalism fully. They are much too simplistic and reduce society to the tension between having fun and being bored, while they should reduce it to class antagonism. They also ignore the central role of white supremacy. Consequently, CrimethInc. initiates actions that are not only useless (like Food Not Bombs or squatting) and non-threatening to capitalism and the state (because counter-cultures validate the dominant culture), but that are in fact dependent on capitalism’s oppression of non-whites and the poor, and that are hence directed against revolution. What CrimethInc. should do, according to the critics, is to provide serious revolutionary information (about school and workplace unions, about solidarity with struggling communities, about building social centers, and about supporting prisoners and asylum seekers etc.) and to engage in physical attacks on the system (e.g. bombing police stations).
For the most part, these criticisms are reactions to CrimethInc.’s introductory book Days of War Nights of Love (2000). Since then, many books, journals, papers, pamphlets, and other publications have been released by the CrimethInc. collective. In those works they defend their perspective and present it as part of a broader, more inclusive approach to revolution: There is not one objectively right way to overthrow capitalism, but there are many—and this is a strength rather than weakness. The CrimethInc. authors offer an “admittedly cursory analysis of class and declassing” in which they call desertion and refusal “the essence of resistance,” especially since unemployment rates are constantly increasing and workplace organization is further loosing relevance. In numerous “How to…” articles they give most of the serious revolutionary information requested by their critics. Issues of race and gender are dealt with, struggles abroad are given attention to.
In my contribution to the panel and/or publication I will analyze most of the CrimethInc. publications to date. I will concentrate primarily on the possible range of prefigurative politics in fields like class/classlessness, gender, race, and other dividing lines—and how useful CrimethInc.’s recommended “recipes” are. What would one have to add to this joyous and playful lifestyle to make it more threatening and thus revolutionary? To this question I hope I can offer answers that are at least worthy of discussion.
Location: Loughborough University, UK
Event Date: Sep 6, 2008
LIKE ADBUSTERS CRIMETHINC. IS A CONSUMER CULTURE REVOLT THE ANARCHISM OF BREAKING STARBUCKS WINDOWS THE DAY AFTER YOU
WENT FOR AN AMERICANO
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=ANARCHY
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=ANARCHISM
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