Green Anarchist- bombs away? or away with the fairies?

Whilst the ACF defend the editors of Green Anarchist imprisoned for merely reporting on direct action, this does not mean that we can extend that defence to the politics of Green Anarchist. The last Green Anarchist had an article applauding the actions of among others, the Unabomber, the Japanese Aum cult and their sarin gas attack on the Tokyo tube, and the Oklahoma bombings. Now, we know that the Unabomber has been defended in the past by Green Anarchist, and now has the support of others, like John Zerzan in the USA and the Fire Thief group in Turkey, but we feel it would be foolish to describe him as an anarchist. Neither can we support the actions of someone whose bombings caused grievous injury and death to those who did not deserve it as well as the possibility of death and injury to postal and office workers.

Obviously, the Unabomber statements with their anti-technological message and their anger against a system that is destroying the planet would meet with sympathy from Green Anarchist. But in the case of the Oklahoma bombers and the Aum cult, no such politics can be used to justify support. The Oklahoma bombings were the work of right wing militias, and when we say right wing, we mean extreme right wing (that is, if the American secret services were not involved as provocateurs or engineered the bombing themselves). If this support is blanket for such bombings, then it could quite easily be widened for support for the bombings carried out by fascists and their secret service manipulators in Italy- or anywhere else for that matter.

Entrapment

As for the Aum cult, we find it amazing that people who regard themselves as anarchists can support any religious cult. Their purpose is to confuse and mystify, to entrap people often from an impoverished background and to act as an antidote to radicalism. Look at similar cults like the Jonestown and the Waco cults as other examples. These cults always involve a charismatic and manipulating leader who imposes strict discipline and hierarchy, often making recruits part with all of their earnings and possessions and often sexually exploiting them into the bargain. In no way can indiscriminate attacks on ordinary people travelling to work be condoned, especially when carried out by paranoid cults. These actions may be symptomatic of a system in terminal decline but they are not examples of a new, libertarian and egalitarian world emerging from the chaos of hierarchical capitalism.

Green Anarchist's support for such 'spectacular' actions, a product of their political confusion, must be condemned.