[R-G] An anarchist votes for the first time

[David Mcreynolds]

Thanks Michael,
I'll pass on to the WRL list and maybe elsewhere. The irony is that I was
just listening to a really great CD of Utah Phillips which a friend had
given me up in Buffalo or Rochester - I sort of lost track of the cities.
Peace,
David

> [Original Message]
> From: Michael Munk <lastmarx1 at worldnet.att.net>
> To: NOV 3 COALITION <lastmarx1 at att.net>
> Date: 10/18/2004 2:26:17 PM
> Subject: An anarchist votes for the first time
>
>
>
> Voting for the First Time: Interview with Utah Phillips
>
> By Carolyn Crane, The Nation. Posted October 15, 2004.
>
>
> Phillips, a committed non-voter who was taught that his body is a
> ballot, will be casting a real ballot this year.
>
> He is a folk singer who tours the United States, delighting
> audiences with his outlandish stories and challenging them with the
ruthless 
> honesty
> of his insights. A veteran of the U.S. Army who served in Korea, he rode
the
> trains for years after coming home in despair from what he'd witnessed
> overseas. He met Ammon Hennessy in Utah at the Joe Hill House for
Transients 
> and
> Migrants and discovered anarchy and pacifism.
>
> These tenets have since shaped his life and work. Phillips and I live in
the
> same Northern California town, Nevada City, where he was one of the
founders
> of our thriving Peace Center of Nevada County. It was from the community 
> radio
> station there that he produced Loafer's Glory, a collection of stories, 
> poems
> and songs set to the accompaniment of Woody Guthrie-influenced guitarist 
> Mark
> Ross. And it was to that radio station he went in late September to share 
> with
> his community an important political decision he'd made, which caused him
> great difficulty and pain.
>
> Q:You surprised many people who are familiar with your work with your
> announcement that you were going to register to vote for the first time 
> ever.
>
> A:This is not easy for me. I'm an anarchist and I've been an anarchist
many,
> many years. The anarchy that I've followed and practiced all of that time 
> came
> to me through Dorothy Day and the Catholic Workers, through Ammon
Hennessy, 
> the
> great Catholic anarchist and pacifist. Ammond taught me, as he did, to
treat
> his body like a ballot. My body is my ballot. And he said, "Cast that body
> ballot on behalf of the people around you every day of your life, every
day. 
> And
> don't let anybody ever tell you you haven't voted." You just didn't assign
> responsibility to other people to do things. You accept responsibility
and 
> see to
> it that something gets done. That's the way he lived and that's the way
the
> past forty, going on fifty, years that I have lived. It's a way to vote 
> without
> caving in to the civil authority I'm committed to dissolving.
>
> But, we are in a desperate situation here. And it's not just us in the 
> United
> States. There are people all over the world who are affected by these
people
> who have staged a coup on our government. I can see a shopkeeper in
Damascus
> who's threatened by being bombed out. I can see a schoolgirl who's 
> collaterally
> killed by the action of these people. There are millions of people in the
> world who are affected by the actions of this government, and they can't 
> vote in
> this election. I have no use for Kerry. I have no use for Bush. I don't
like
> either one of them, but these folks can't vote in this election. They
have 
> to
> have people vote for them. And I intend to be one of those. What's the
best
> chance they've got to keep them from being bombed and killed? I don't
know. 
> Kerry
> is an unknown quantity. Bush is a known quantity. A crapshoot, isn't it?
But
> I'm going to stand in for one of these people. And if I'm wrong, I'm
wrong 
> by
> myself.
>
> Q:When you made your announcement, you talked about women who have
inspired 
> and
> influenced your decision. Can you talk a little about that?
>
> A:I learned a great deal from Judi Barry. I drove and talked with her the 
> day
> before her car got blown up in Oakland in 1990. She had come around to
the 
> idea
> that direct action and political action are two hands of the same body. I
> think as an anarchist and when you keep company with other anarchists, as
I 
> have
> in the IWW, the Industrial Workers of the World, and this is my fiftieth 
> year
> in the IWW, you develop a great antagonism toward the political process,
> toward statism in any form. However, many of us have come to realize that 
> political
> action and direct action are two hands of the same body. We have to learn 
> how
> to work together: the street and the ballot box. In places like
Philadelphia
> or Boston, Mass., when they put freedom in jail, when they put freedom of
> assembly and freedom of association and freedom of speech in a bullpen
with 
> razor
> wire around it, they put freedom in jail. In the bullpen on Pier 57 in New
> York, when my daughter [Morgan Phillips] was jailed for trying to shut
down 
> Wall
> Street in an act of nonviolence civil disobedience.
>
> They're trying to tie that direct-action hand behind our back. If they
> succeed in that, how long will it be, how long are we going to hang on to 
> the other
> hand, the political action hand? Every significant social movement in this
> country – anti-slavery, suffragette, labor movement, peace movement –
all
> started on the street. All of them began on the street. Don't give up the 
> street.
> The street's where we win. We vote with our feet. That's where it all 
> begins.
> Made a song about that, "Bodhi Busick." Put a nice tune to it. No, I
won't 
> give
> up the street. But in this instance, at this time, at this place, I think 
> the
> situation is so dire that yes, I have registered to vote and I am
prepared 
> to
> stand in for one of the victims of the kind of brutality that the people
in
> Washington bring to the world.
>
> Q:You've said that your choice to not vote, to not participate in the
system 
> in
> that way, is one of the most sacred promises you've made. I know what it
> means to you to make this decision. It's sobering, because I think: Are 
> things
> really that bad?
>
> A:Yeah, it is that bad. Now, I am not putting myself forth as an example. 
> I'm
> not putting myself forth as a role model. Anarchists don't make rules for 
> other
> people. You make rules for yourself and then people have got to learn how
to
> trust you. And if you blow it you have the courage to change, and you do
> change and an anarchist is always something you're becoming. I don't need 
> any
> congratulations for what I'm doing at all. I feel lousy about it. I don't 
> feel good
> about it all. I'm simply going to do it. And if there are consequences of
my
> act, than I harvest those consequences. That too, is anarchy.
>
>
>
>