How is it that people who claim to be political can be so nasty when it comes to ideological squabbling? These days it seems people can’t say unconditionally that another set of ideas might have a point. One of the most glaring examples of the turf war is the debate around anarcho-primitivism. No other debate among anarchists seems to stir greater passions than civilization, technology and revolutionary change. Sadly, most of the discussion fails to step forward in any way, and it could.

This is an open discussion with other anarchists of color about politics, ideology and anarcho-primitivism. By no means will you find me taking on a “tree name,” equating my people’s struggle with a cow’s, or throwing out my computer, but I think it’s critical we learn more about a wide range of ideas, including anarcho-primitivism. With so few ideas taking hold, it’s necessary that we look closely at everything. The way civilization functions is an anarcho-primitivist critique we all can learn from. Maybe it’s because so much of this civilization plays a culturally assimilationist role in our lives, or perhaps it’s that this civilization’s very existence plays a role in oppression. Whatever the case, with imperialism leading the way to oblivion, it is imperative that we find new ideas from which people of color can build. Civilization and modern technology, both imply, present a pleasant, pre-packaged world, cleaned of imperfections and safe. Furthermore, civilization, I argue, is implicitly summed up in most public discourse as being white.

Much of what is regarded as civilization is unabashedly white supremacist. In the Southwest, one of the Mexican American Civil Rights movement’s motivations, as Professor Rodolfo Acuna points out, was the Eurocentrism in history books. Civilization is taught to be one of “modern” conveniences, rather than the intellectual and emotional capacity of a society. Western civilization, in particular, is almost wholly focused on talking up its superiority. Aztec advances in astrology and mathematics, African strides in dozens of disciplines, and the subsequent theft of all by the European were whitewashed into this modern world of sport utility vehicles, a Protestant work ethic and straight-faced advocacy of “our democracy.”

Of course, political people tend to get very bound up in preconceptions of technology. We begin looking at technology as a tool of class, rather than as a tool of imperialism. Inadvertently, we begin buying the dominant culture’s shell game of class. Contrary to conventional leftist thinking, the perception of class is critical because it requires a perception of tension to support the idea that this is a democracy where that division is emblematic of the overarching need for unity. Thus, we begin talking about the gulf between rich and poor, for instance, and not the society that requires both. We also fail to grasp the desire to ‘buy up’ to another strata that cuts across class lines. Where class-reductionism fails to examine technology is in Eurocentric export of its visions of society. Not just in selling consumerism, but in sterilization and remote gas supply. Is every technology evil? No, but the vast majority of American technologies have a profit and Western cultural basis as their primary motives. Inevitably, such export means the destruction of Third World people’s cultures and lives. Free trade and its many variants have been a grim reminder of this.

For people of color in the “first world,” the ideas of modern civilization and technology are wedded to embracing Eurocentrism as our own. Consumerism, for example, is much more than a capitalist aberration, but a sociological and psychological outgrowth of a civilization obsessed with its own modernity and superiority. Why else, even in Communist nations, is there such interest in Western goods and lifestyle? Because, above and beyond capitalism, America has managed to make its goods’ acquisition appealing, their existence superior to homegrown items. This goes beyond mere economics. The objective of Western civilization is to strip people of color from their cultures and histories and replace them with that of the Eurocentric ideal.

If you are a person of color, your support of this modernity and superiority is integral to its success. Rebel Black and Brown factions have been part of the Western experience for time immemorial, and Black and Brown unity with Western civilization is a key debate point for the imperialists who seek a mandate for assimilation and colonization. The more people of color start identifying “our” values as American rather than Third World, the bolder imperialism gets. Thus, it’s very important for white Republicans to have the Alberto Gonzaleses and Condoleeza Rices supporting their “democratization” of Iraq. Those particular whites know it’s a powerful image. It makes them more raw in their actions. And the implicit support of Black and Brown subjects stateside, no matter the class, is supposed to undergird their push to exterminate the dark, rebel races and cultures.

To their shame, the left and class-war anarchists have provided little in the way of resistance to the onslaught of ideas. Many have been suckered into the rhetoric of “our” country, “our” struggle and so forth without ever questioning who “our” really is. Class-war anarchism has failed to positively explore many ideas, including anarcho-primitivism, and quietly fallen in line with white supremacy’s presentation of civilization itself. In “Anarchism And Other Impediments To Anarchy,” Bob Black notes:

The history of anarchism is a history of unparalleled defeat and martyrdom, yet anarchists venerate their victimized forebears with a morbid devotion which occasions suspicion that the anarchists, like everybody else, think that the only good anarchist is a dead one. Revolution — defeated revolution — is glorious, but it belongs in books and pamphlets. In this century — Spain in 1936 and France in 1968 are especially clear cases — the revolutionary upsurge caught the official, organized anarchists flat-footed and initially non-supportive or worse. The reason is not far to seek. It’s not that all these ideologues were hypocrites (some were). Rather, they had worked out a daily routine of anarchist militancy, one they unconsciously counted on to endure indefinitely since revolution isn’t really imaginable in the here-and-now, and they reacted with fear and defensiveness when events outdistanced their rhetoric.

Marxism and its bastard cousins have struggled to find relevancy in a world where the working class doesn’t fight the elite, but so desperately aspires to be the ruling class that it will die and kill in their name when called on. Ideas that fall outside the class line, including the emergence of an Anarchist People of Color tendency, are looked at as competition or reason to use class politics as a battering ram against divergent views. Class reductionist politics have done precious little to change capitalism or class structures. The idea of class unity is obliterated every time those of the working or middle classes start talking about “our safety” as if their very existence and that of the elite were somehow united. In truth, Marxism and class-war anarchism have done little in the last three generations to foment real resistance. Yet, rather than concede that their ideas have failed to evolve at the rapid pace as capitalism, or even support divergent views that have gained far more, said folk would rather go down with the ship.

By no means do I advocate anarcho-primitivism, radical environmentalism and so forth. What I do advocate is keeping our options open as oppressed people to learn about how colonialism works. How can the ideas presented get us to where we want to be? I chose to discuss anarcho-primitivism for its powerful imagery, and to demonstrate the need to be fearless in finding answers, even in what is unpopular among “serious” anarchists. Having blinders is an easy trap to fall in, because our world is all about competing. However, people of color should remember what sectarianism has brought us; we need to keep our eyes on the prize first. My hope is that we can rise above the current level of discourse and take it forward. Oppressed people around the world understand that liberation is not reinventing the wheel, but seeing that the wheel itself must be discarded for something new. How we get there requires all of us, as Heather Ajani and I point out in ” On Donovan Jackson and White ‘Race Traitors’ Who Claim They`re Down,” to build our own critiques, strategies and visions for our communities, for our lives.

This suggestion for exploration is not an endorsement for anarcho-primitivism’s many issues. In my view, where these ideas fail to most clearly define themselves is regarding race. One of the primary slights to anarcho-primitivism is that it’s white hippies waxing poetic over indigenous cultures; and indeed it’s unclear how much anarcho-primitivism is hyperbolizing ancient indigenous culture and how much it’s celebrating Third World societies as they are at this moment. Anarcho-primitivism’s advocates would be astute to point out the Eurocentric view’s racism against non-Western, non-tech-heavy cultures. Many do not, and some fall into the rather bizarre place of recognizing indigenous culture but being hostile to self-determination or the very people of color with ancestral links to such cultures. Clearly, anarcho-primitivism makes valid points regarding such relativism, though it could easily emphasize the role of race in such.

In addition, laissez-faire and social Darwinist extensions, in particular, present challenges to the philosophy. A few of its adherents seem to interpret anarcho-primitivism to be a drop-out culture, though many others build from dialogue. And there needs to be a clear line between anarcho-primitivism and Deep Ecology, which advocates population control and doing away with most existing technology. However, dismissing all ideas without acknowledging merits and possibilities to a better world is a mistake. Anarchists of color especially need to keep this in mind.

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