In the latest issue of Upping the Anti journal, two articles were published on the question, “How should Left groups relate to non-Left anti-Imperialist movements?”
The first article, “Challenges to Capitalism, Challenges for the Left: Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and the Three Way Fight,” Michael Staudenmaier introduces the “three way fight” analysis, as an attempt to go beyond the bi-polar worldview that the author finds both widespread on the Left and an unsatisfactory analytical framework. As a response, the journal published the article “Islam and the Left: A Reply to Staudenmaier” by Rami El-Amine of Left Turn magazine.
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The following is the text of a talk I gave on the panel “Anarchism and Responding to Anti-Semitism,” at the 2006 conference, “Facing a Challenge Within: A Progressive Scholars’ and Activists’ Conference on Anti-Semitism* and The Left.”
In my short presentation, I laid out a very basic hypothesis about why U.S. anarchists have a blindspot regarding the issue of antisemitism. The hypothesis is by no means meant as a comprehensive theory to the topic. Rather, it focuses specifically on the limitations of an analytical approach based on a “generalized critique of hierarchy.” The inability of U.S. anarchists to address antisemitism is not meant to stem entirely from this explanation, as the topic is certainly complex. I am hoping that this short text contributes in some way to understandings of this under-analyzed topic. Feedback is certainly welcomed.
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Jewish Currents Magazine, July-August 2007
In the post-9/11 world, progressive people are faced with deep challenges. Racist and anti-Semitic resentments are informing judgments about social groups and legitimizing discrimination, terrorism, war and hatred. In too many parts of the world, groups of victims seem to be in desperate confrontation with each other. In Berlin, Germany, I encountered a group working on some of these issues in ways that could provide insights for the left.
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ZNet – June 2007
“Make Capitalism History: Shut Down the G8!”
The grassroots mobilizations against the G8 summit, held in the northern German town of Heiligendamm in early June of this year, were organized by broad networks of direct actionists, anti-racist groups, anti-border groups, anti-fascist militants, queer activists, squatters, debt-relief groups, trade unions, environmental organizations and many others. Despite the very restrictive policy of the German state that forbid any demonstrations in a large perimeter around the ‘security fence’ protecting the G8 summit, activists successfully disrupted the G8 meeting.[i]
The tiny enclave of Heiligendamm was for two days only reachable by helicopters or with boats from the seaside, as demonstrators blocked roads and train tracks leading to the site of the summit. Impressive were the pictures of thousands of people crossing fields and forests, in their effort to out-maneuver the huge police force, and make their way to the fence.
Heiligendamm will mark another memorable moment in the alter-globalization movement, a movement whose strength is often attributed to its diversity of actors. But this multitude, however, should not be mixed up with arbitrariness, as the movement itself also struggles with the challenges in developing a critique of global capitalism that provides emancipatory possibilities.
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