Nowtopian

Anarchism…. when?

Following yesterday’s rather rambling movie commentaries doubling as quick notes on rewriting the history of the ‘Sixties’ and collective experiments in general…

This past Saturday a bunch of us headed down to good ol’ UC Santa Cruz for a one-day conference on “Anarchism Now”. The speakers were very interesting, and unlike my usual distaste for conferences, I actually enjoyed this one. There were four speakers in the morning session and four in the afternoon, and about an hour and a half to “discuss” following all the 20-minute talks. The discussions left a lot to be desired, mostly because everyone (including me) talked past each other, just blurting out what each of us wanted to communicate, but with very little back and forth or sticking to any particular topic or thread that came earlier.

Partly this was due to the wide range of ideas covered by the speakers (Iain Boal, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Eddie Yuen, John Holloway, Arif Dirlik, Barry Pateman, Carwil James, Roger White) and partly it was due to the fact that we were about 100 people in a room trying to say something meaningful about that elusive and frustrating category called ‘anarchism’; or in several cases, trying NOT to, preferring instead to address the practical behaviors and ideas that get labeled ‘anarchist,’ regardless of self-identification.

Continue reading Anarchism…. when?

“Following Sean” and “Mouth to Mouth”

Two films I saw at the SF Int’l Film Festival spoke to each other in an odd and serendipitous way. Together, they contribute to the ongoing effort to define and rewrite the Sixties, or at least to shape our understanding of cultural currents that we usually associate with that historical period.

One film, “Mouth to Mouth,” is made by a Canadian/British director Alison Murray (exec. produced by Atom Egoyan, whose films I’ve mostly liked quite well), and tells the story of a young alienated teenage girl who gets recruited into SPARK (Street People Armed with Radical Knowledge). The beginning seemed hopeful when a handsome shirtless blond guy hands our heroine a small flyer inviting her to learn more about SPARK. Soon thereafter she stumbles upon the group as it demonstrates how to save a person who is overdosing, including giving a quick dose of Naloxene (? can’t remember the exact drug, but I know that folks involved with Needle Exchange here in SF use it too) to resuscitate a comatose person.

Continue reading “Following Sean” and “Mouth to Mouth”