BLOOMINGTON ANARCHIST UNION: WHO WE ARE AND WHO WE AIN'T by Joseph Average October, 1994 BLOOMINGTON ANARCHIST UNION: WHO WE ARE AND WHO WE AIN'T The Bloomington Anarchist Union (BAU) does not exist in the sense of a traditional organization or revolutionary cell, dedicated to little more than its own self-preservation. Rather, it is a tidy local umbrella for a number of Bloomington activists who happen to be anarchists as well, and who need a place to go now and then to share food, talk, and views. A typical get-together includes a potluck dinner, lounging on the porch, and discussion of the varieties of activities in which we find ourselves involved. BAU was formed in the winter of 1991-92 when a number of anarchists decided to host a Midwest Anarchist Gathering in Dunn Meadow. Held in October of 1992, the gathering drew more than 200 visitors for three days, demonstrating to us the power of ad-hoc organization, or organization-as- needed. Since then, we have more or less chosen to follow that principle, and remain loosely affiliated, only tightening our arrangement when we need to get something done as anarchists. The general day-to-day activism, however, takes place in the variety of grass roots organizations, affinity groups, and special projects to which we devote much of our time. As many people know, Bloomington anarchists have a deeply pragmatic streak, and a constant desire to accomplish goals set primarily at the local and regional level. Rather than forming an anarchist enclave or group that would do little outside of flyering and polemicizing, and therefore have little impact on the community at large, most of us are involved in other organizations, groups, or projects in which we can hope to see tangible results for our hard work. In this way, we not only gain from our experience with diverse projects and learn from grass roots organizers, but we offer our own anti-authoritarian strategies and visions to those projects. Far from the RinterventionsS typical of the old left, in which Leninist drones infiltrate an organization in order to either recruit members, take it over, or destroy it, we aim to respect, learn from, and contribute to grass roots projects. And, equally far from the isolationism and provincialism which characterizes the anarchist presence in North America, we find strength and solace in the company of activists from a diversity of backgrounds and political beliefs. It is this kind of reciprocity, flexibility, pragmatism, and willingness to learn from others that we find lacking in the anarchist scene generally. The projects we are involved with are many and varied, and range from successful to faltering. We definitely have our ups and downs! A number of us work intensely on housing issues, as organizers for co-operative housing, as tenant organizers for self-managed public housing, as grant writers and city government watchdogs, and as critics of standard urban planning and economic development. Others work on issues of womenUs health and domestic violence. Local anarchists have been instrumental in the foundation of the Bloomington WomenUr;.s Health Collective, a group dedicated to empowerment, self-education, direct action, and the proliferation of womenUs health information. Many anarchists are involved in building support and numbers for Critical Mass Rides, and harnessing the demonstrative power of these non-motorized vehicle fests toward leveraging real and significant changes in urban planning and arrangements. Through the years here in Bloomington you could always find some anarchists within the variety of progressive and radical grass roots projects, such as: the battle against Westinghouse and its toxic waste incinerator, the inauguration and maintenance of an activist/community center (which struggled for a year and a half but is now defunct), the campaign to open the secret books of the Indiana University Foundation and stop its sale of Mississippi lands to toxic waste "management" corporations, the creation of a community kitchen, opposition to the Gulf War, Latin American solidarity work, the penal abolition movement, Crane Naval Base shut-downs, community sponsored agriculture programs and the development of consumer co-operatives. At present we are working on a number of projects through affinity groups or with other grass roots organizations. Besides the activities already mentioned, we are consolidating a much-needed anti-gentrification group to parallel the more "respectable" work we do in the housing field. Moreover, HUD disinvestment has forced local activists to step up tenant organizing, as the Federal government pulls public funds out of the projects to sell them off. Anarchists in Bloomington are also trying to organize a coalition to produce a grass roots newspaper dealing with issues of housing, labor, and economic development from a radical perspective, and are working in a coalition to establish a Free School. The Bloomington Womens' Health Collective is mobilizing to challenge the intervention of abstinence-based (i.e.ignorance- based) sex education curricula in the schools, and continues to lead the way in creative income-generation schemes: selling stickers, magnets, self-produced pamphlets, and herbal tinctures, suppositories, and salves. Local anarchists are also involved in Queer groups, agricultural extension/draught-power/tech transfer/sustainable agriculture work and Community Sponsored Agriculture. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @ ...go now ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall @ @ come upon you. Your riches are corrupted...your gold and silver is @ @ cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you... @ @ --James 5:1-6 @ @ BLOOMINGTON ANARCHIST UNION PO BOX 3207 BLOOMINGTON, IN 47402 @ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@