The Limits of Electoral Politics

by The Bureau of Public Secrets

Roughly speaking we can distinguish five degrees of "government":

(1) Unrestricted freedom

(2) Direct democracy

(3) Delegate democracy

(4) Representative democracy

(5) Overt minority dictatorship

The present society oscillates between (4) and (5), i.e. between overt
minority rule and covert minority rule camouflaged by a facade of token
democracy. A liberated society would eliminate (4) and (5) and would
progressively reduce the need for (2) and (3). . . .

Conscientious Objection and the US Military

MoveOn Bulletin, Wednesday, October 16, 2002

Editor: susan.thompson@moveon.org

Editorial Assistant: leah@moveon.org

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CONTENTS:

1. Introduction: Saying No to War, Drafted or Otherwise

2. One Link: All About Conscientious Objection

3. Conscientious Objection and the Draft

4. Conscientious Objection and Taxes

5. Conscientious Objection, the "War on Terrorism", and Iraq

6. Conscientious Objection in the Past: Some Examples

7. Actions, Organizations, and Links

8. About the MoveOn bulletin and MoveOn.org

INTRODUCTION: SAYING NO TO WAR, DRAFTED OR OTHERWISE

Our readers may already be wondering why we've chosen to spend a bulletin on the topic of conscientious objection when US citizens aren't facing a draft.



It is important to remember that conscientious objection does not only affect draftees -- it affects anyone who is considering or is currently involved in military service. And it's more about determining one's personal beliefs and opinions that it is about legally qualifying as an objector.



But while we are not currently facing a draft, it is not outside of the realm of possibility. In every war since Vietnam, the US has managed to conduct military operations using the resources of the volunteer-based military alone. The campaign against Iraq may buck that trend. According to plans leaked to the New York Times, it's likely that after a war the US will occupy Iraq and put a military government in control for five years or more. And US military personnel remain engaged in operations around the globe, from the Philippines to Georgia. As the armed forces are stretched thinner, the likelihood of needing to find the personnel to supplement them increases.

The Question of the Revolutionary Anarchist Organization

A Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC) Position
Paper (adopted September 15, 2002)

0. The Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC) is still a
small anarchist federation and, in our mind, there is still a lot of work
to do in order to see the emergence of the type of revolutionary
organization we advocate in our region. Our federation is composed of
activists coming from different movements of resistance who identify with
the communist tradition within anarchism. Our activities are organized
around theoretical development, anarchist propaganda, and intervention in
the struggle of our class, be it autonomously or by direct involvement in
social movements.

Since our formation, in April 2000, we have based ourselves on a number of
principles:

The Imperialist Backlash on Empire

Antonio Negri interviewed by Ida Dominijanni

Translated by Arianna Bove/ Erik Empson

Empire's commercial success indicates how the interpretative proposal of the
book resonates with the reality of the present. The proposal has become,
through agreement or disagreement, a compulsory point of reference in the
debate on the global world. S11 intercepts it, is interrogated by it and
interrogates it: especially the relationship between the form of Imperial
sovereignty outlined in the book and the actual American policy. The latter
seems to be characterised as a traditional imperialist state that aims to
redesign the geo-political borders of the planet by mobilising national
identities more than as global decentred and deteritorrialised Empire that
administers hybrid identities and flexible hierachies with no recourse to
ethnic, national traditions and values.

Q. Empire came out in the US at the beginning of 2000 and in Italy two years
later. In between the two towers collapsed. One would have expected the
Italian edition to have an additional chapter on S11 like many other
political books that came out this year. You didn't add one, is it because
the event was not epochal or because it did not constitute a surprise for
your thesis?

A. The event was very relevant but it confirmed one of the fundamental
theses of the book i.e. the end of American insularity and the difference
between telluric and maritime nations. The fact that New York could be
bombed like London, Berlin and Tokyo confirmed that the process of formation
of the new global order was fully deployed. The fact that Al Queda had
attacked the symbols of American economic power was a sign of the 'civil war' for imperial leadership. What is absolutely new with respect to the book's
structure is the fact that the American reaction is configuring itself as a
regressive backlash contrary to the imperial tendency. It is an imperialist
backlash within and against Empire that is linked to old structures of
power, old methods of command, and a monocratic and substantialist
conception of sovereignty that represents a counter tendency with respect to
the molecular and relational characters of the imperial bio-power that we
had analysed. The gravity of the situation today lies in this contradiction.