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How the
Project Got Started
The Red and Black Book project started because there were a lot of
people interested in Anarchism who didn't really know what it was and,
because of this, didn't know how to apply it in their lives and political
work. This created a lot of unnecessary and counterproductive internal
conflict in the Anarchist Movement and made it hard for us to write
propaganda and recruit others to the Anarchist Movement. Anarchism is
not a set of rules we can go by to say we are part of a group. For most
of us, it is a way we always saw the world and ourselves but, never
really realized there was a name for it. By putting the books out, we
help others to understand Anarchist ideas and find out if they are also
Anarchists. Many people were interested in learning more about Anarchism
but, most of them were unemployed or working wage slave jobs so they
couldn't afford to BUY Anarchist books. In addition, even the most left-wing
bookstores in Southern California didn't sell Anarchist books. Our experience
with the (De)Center Infoshop taught us that an "Anarchist Book Store"
was not the solution because it was too hard to raise money to pay the
rent and bills and because, wherever you chose to locate it, most people
wouldn't be able to get to it. We needed a cheap decentralized way to
get out Anarchist books.
In the Summer of 1994 several traumatic events happened to the Southern
California Anarchist scene:
(1) ICC pulled all their books and silk screening equipment
out of the (De)Center Infoshop after several dozen T-shirts were stolen
out from behind the counter and food was pilled on screens which ruined
them. We had been printing there and donating some of the money from
the shirts to the rent. Thefts got so out of control, we started falling
behind in our rent and bills. When the landlord tried to evict us, he
said we had said the place was closing which was a lie. Other people
at the collective took his word over ours and tried to start a fight.
We stopped actively helping to run the place.
(2) We held an Anarchist gathering at Arrowbear in the San Bernardino
Mountains which fell apart because of sabotage and a failure to practice
mutual aid to counter it. We spent months planning an event which was
specifically advertized as not being a punk rock event. Then, someone
put out a flier saying there was going to be a big crusty punk party
at Arrowbear. We were invaded and some people who had come to learn
about Anarchism were scared away. The crusties got drunk and started
some fights. Instead of asking the crusties to leave, people canceled
workshops and debated whether it was "authoritarian" to ask them to
leave.
(3) There was a Food Not Bombs gathering in San Francisco which
many of us attended. Many of our friends were arrested at demonstrations
supporting housing and food for the homeless. While there, people we
trusted to hold a fund raiser inside the (De)Center Infoshop, instead
held a party with amplified music in the back parking lot where the
sound carried for miles into adjacent neighborhoods until 2:00 int the
morning. When we got back to Los Angeles, we received a letter that
the neighbors had petitioned the landlord to have us evicted. We talked
him into giving us a second chance. We never received any of the money
from the so-called fund-raiser.
(4) "Redwood Summer" (An Earth First! Action against logging
the Headwaters Forest redwood trees) attracted a lot of our people to
direct actions in Norther California. When they returned, Falcon House,
a co-op house in Long Beach where Food Not Bombs Long Beach was based,
broke up.
(5) The (De)Center Infoshop was evicted from its space in Highland
Park.
I did a lot of thinking about what had happened over the summer. I
tried to think of how we could do things better and determined that
I had to only work with "Serious People" in the future. A serious person
is a person who does what they say they are going to do when they make
you a promise or commit to do something. My friend Joaquin and I moved
the T-shirt collective into a storage closet in a gas station which
had been converted to an auto repair place. We started silk screening
in the storage lot (more of a junk yard) behind the gas station where
Joaquin lived in a camper. The summer had burned a lot of people out
and Anarchism was virtually dead for a while. I though about what had
happened and determined that I was going to continue doing Anarchist
work. We kept making Anarchist T-shirts and I helped arrange a speaking
engagement for Keith McHenry of Food Not Bombs. I started bootlegging
Anarchist propaganda and tabling. While tabling at a college, I discovered
that more serious "professional- looking" material was easier to give
out than the old "punk rock" style stuff with a "zine" look which we
had been putting out. I also discovered that no one was interested in
buying books but, they would take stuff that was free even after arguing
with us about Anarchism. A guy actually walked up to our table and said
"is this a joke?" He was a philosophy student. He took a bunch of stuff
when he left.
It was a guy named Jay who first gave me the Idea of the Red and Black
Books. I don't even remember what he said now but, I started thinking
that people needed to learn what Anarchism was if we were going to get
anywhere. I started out with some of the shorter Anarchist pamphlets
I had in my library and went out and bought some red paper and a long
reach stapler from a local office supply place. That was almost a year
after Arrowbear. A year and a half later, we now have dozens of titles
in English and Spanish.
My friend Lyn said that her first experience with the Red and Black
Books was at a Zapatista solidarity meeting. My friend Rain from Black
Star Collective set a pile of the books in the middle of the floor and
there was a feeding frenzy. I had bootlegged a bunch of books on the
EZLN and women in the EZLN for him and turned them into Red and Black
Books. I gave those to Rain along with a lot of Anarchist titles for
his collective. I had been rationing the books because I wanted them
to go out in as many places as possible.
My first experience was leaving them at a local vegetarian cafe only
to find them almost gone when I came back a few days later. I wondered
if people had stolen them or sabotaged the project but, the collective
which runs the place assured me that the books were just popular. Lots
of people just wanted to read about Anarchism!
Lessons Learned From
the Red and Black Book Project
We have been doing the Red and Black Book Project for about two years
now. I think that one of the most important things we have learned is
that photocopy machines start to ruin your copies after a while because
they are not serviced regularly and photocopy dust gets in the mechanism
and causes them to not do proper two-sided copies. What this means is
that there is a physical limitation to how many books one person with
one machine can do. It is important to find a way to get free photocopies
if you can so you only pay for the paper. But, having done that, you
will find that some places let their machine go to hell before getting
it serviced. So, keep an eye on the machine you use and don't be shy
about pulling an all-nighter making books the day after the machine
is cleaned and serviced: BE SURE TO BE OUT OF THERE LONG BEFORE ANYONE
COMES AROUND THE NEXT DAY. The advantage of bringing your own paper,
is that jam free paper will make you more productive and make it less
likely that your print place will notice that you ran several thousand
copies off. We have done runs of over 8,000 two-sided sheets before
the machine started to expand from the heat and started acting up. When
the machine starts to act up, go home.
Since there are practical limits to how much stuff one person can get
out on the street, it is common sense that we need to get a lot more
people doing Red and Black Book Projects. You do this by making black
and white master copies with black and white covers and giving them
to people who want to do their own books. This web page was designed
to allow you to get master copies like these so you could make your
own books, fliers or posters, but not everyone will have access to the
Internet. The more people there are doing books, the more material we
can get out.
Get the books out if you can, but really, any good literature about
Anarchism is useful. The Red and Black Books are a good attention-getter.
We always put out Anarchist material along with material from other
groups, so we may table for Food Not Bombs or Anti-Racist Action and
put out their literature, but by including Anarchist literature as well,
the table becomes an Anarchist table. Because it is not always possible
to have books to give out (they get pick up quickly as soon as we put
them on the table so you may run out) it is a good Idea to have an assortment
of Anarchist fliers with a brief two-page text on various aspects of
Anarchism. Brochures are also cheap to make and easier to make in quantity.
All you have to do is copy them onto legal size paper and fold them
twice to make them into a brochure.
It should be common sense that you should not work with authoritarian
groups like Communist Parties, Socialist Parties, the Green Party or
any group who claims to want to reform the current system. Also, try
not to have our activities draw the attention of the capitalist press,
the government or any institution of coercion like the Police. The reasoning
for this is clearly evidenced from history which is spelled out in many
of the Red and Black Books and it has been vindicated by our experiences
dealing with these people. You are likely to run into them if you are
involved in any kind of political activism, bu the safest thing to do
is just not to trust them.
The Thinking Behind
The "Look" of the Books (The Psychology Behind The Format)
Red: It is an eye-catching color. It was chosen because it is
a psychoactive color and people are drawn to pick it up. It is like
eye candy.
Photo On Cover: Photos or cool graphics were used to personalize
the books; to make people warm to them. Anarchists look like someone
you could run into on the street today and talk to. When we can't find
a photo, we try to use cool looking Anarchist graphics like woodcuts
or ink drawings. We keep a scrap book of Anarchist graphics in document
protectors so they stay in good shape and can be used later on.
Short Length: Books are short because more than 25 pieces of
paper (100-125 pages) is hard to staple. But, they are also short because
it makes them less intimidating to read.
Authors: Anarchist authors are chosen who write clearly in 20th
century English and are easy to read. Some more intellectual "theory"
and "history" books are also included when they address key ideas in
Anarchism or key events in Anarchist History. The books in the Red and
Black Series address key ideas of Anarchism, the history of Anarchism
and the methods of Anarchism. This same principle is applied to the
Spanish/Español books we print. Some additional books deal with the
truths of the society we live in and what it takes to do organizing
work.
Red and Black Books also deal with why we do not trust Communists and
politicians.
Bridge Books: Some books we call "bridge books" because they
are intended to relate Anarchist ideas to different cultures. These
include books on Mexican, Latin American, African American, African
and Asian Anarchism. We also print Anarchist books in Spanish/Español
(for people more comfortable reading in Spanish/Español) when we can
get hold of good titles.
Free Books: Red and Black Books are given away free because
most people interested in Anarchism don't have enough money to buy books.
Credits: When we copy the books, we don't copy the publisher's
name because many are capitalists (university presses especially fall
under this category) and could come after us. This could also be used
as a pretext by the government to harass us. CONTELPRO and other cases
have taught us that the government tries to suppress political dissent
by trumping up trivial charges on people then arranging to have the
book thrown at them in court so they receive long sentence. We don't
want to fall victim to that kind of tactics.
We do publish the authors name if we know it. When material was originally
put out by another Anarchist group, we credit them in the book if we
know who they are.
Contact Addresses: The first rule of covert action is, "if you
don't want to get caught, don't take credit for your work." This is
why we don't put OUR contact address or phone number on the red and
black books. Our purpose is to get the information out. Putting our
name on our work would announce to any cop or agent provocateur WHO
to mess with to shut down the project. CONTELPRO has shown the lengths
the government will go to hurt us financially or frame us with phoney
criminal charges to stop our work. If they don't know who we are, they
don't know who to go after.
Books We Don't Print: There are many writers who try to call
themselves Anarchist to promote other agendas like environmentalism.
There are also writers who try to say that their lifestyle is Anarchist
when it is not. We try to focus only on ideas which will lead to a working
Anarchist Society. We don't print books with the word "Communism in
the title. Some Europeans also call Anarchism "Libertarian Socialism"
or "Libertarian Communism." Some also call themselves "Anarchist-Communist."
Because of the Cold war, it is better not to confuse people and to distinguish
clearly between Anarchism and Authoritarian Communism. This is not a
disparagement upon our hard-working Anarchist friends in Europe; merely
a necessity for educating Americans in Anarchism. No doubt, this dilemma
will also apply in other countries as well.
We read all the material before we decide to add a book to the project.
Obviously, we do not print communist, right-wing or bourgeois liberal/"progressive"
material. We don't put out stuff which is lifestylist.
The Political
Significance of Red and Black
Black and red are the colors of the international Anarchist Movement.
Red is the color of the international Socialist Movement. Socialism
is the historical idea that the welfare of people is more important
than money, property or power and that people should govern themselves
and not be ruled by kings, dictators or the wealthy. Socialists opposed
Capitalism, Private Real Property, the Class System and Social Privilege,
War, Slavery, the Chattel Slavery of Women, Child Labor, the Criminalization
of Poverty, and the Church.
Red is the color of blood spilled to free working people from slavery
and oppression. It is the color of anger against our enemies in the
ruling classes.
Anarchism is the libertarian and federalist tendency of the Socialist
Movement which is opposed to the Authoritarian and Centralist wing which
includes Communist and Parliamentary Socialists.
Anarchists began carrying black flags in remembrance of all the Anarchists
killed in the international labor movement. Black flags have historically
been flown by movements who reject all government authority. Just as
a white flag was a flag of truce easily distinguishable from national
flags, the black flag was also easily distinguishable and was flown
by people who had freed themselves from slavery to show they were loyal
to no king and no government. Anarchists also wanted to distinguish
themselves from authoritarian Socialists to show they believed in freedom.
The first black flag is said to have been flown at the Paris Commune
by women demonstrating against creeping authoritarianism within the
commune.
Black and Red were first used together by Anarcho-Syndicalist movements
to show the unity between Anarchism (Political freedom symbolized by
the black) and Syndicalism (Revolutionary Unionism symbolized by the
red). The Black and Red flag first used by the CNT in Spain had a red
triangle of cloth in the upper corner next to the flag pole and a black
triangle of cloth in the lower corner away from the pole, joined to
form a rectangular flag. Red and black flags are traditionally used
by Anarcho-syndicalist labor organizations around the world and by their
international federation, the IWA/AIT (International Workers Association/Asociación
Internaciónal de Trabajadores). Other groups like the IWW fly variations
of this flag because of Anarcho-syndicalist influences (Many IWW members
are members of the Workers Solidarity Alliance-IWA/AIT or other Anarchist
groups.).
ICC
Political Statement (What We Believe)
We are Class War Anarchists. We believe that a conflict must go on
between those who work for a living and our enemies who get rich off
our labor but, do nothing until those who live off our labor are laid
low and the society with power and privilege based on wealth and class
is abolished in favor of a free society based on mutual aid, voluntary
cooperation and personal freedom and responsibility. We advocate the
methods of Revolutionary Syndicalism to win the class war against the
corruption of the rich and powerful. We believe that all forms of non-capitalist
non-exploitive non-authoritarian economic organization can co-exist
in an Anarchist society in a Federation of free people, free communities
and free workplaces. We believe that the first step towards the creation
of a free society is for people to organize, educate themselves and
assert their autonomy from the government, the capitalist and organized
religion.
Our Name
Insurgency means to be against the established authority. Our collective
is a propaganda collective which produces information intended to help
build a culture of resistance to authority, to help to break the perceived
legitimacy of the authoritarian and capitalistic status quo and persuade
people not to cooperate with its exercise of authority over us, and
to promote Anarchistic counter-institutions like counter-economic projects
which can one day replace the capitalist system with an Anarchist society.
ICC also supports other organizations in the Southern California Area
who share our objectives and provides information to people around the
World who are interested in Anarchist organizing. We thought up the
name when we first got started silk screening T-shirts at the (De)Center
Infoshop and Anarchist Center.
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