were enlightened on.
As a male anarchist it was easy for me to recognize the domination exerted by the ruling class, yet when I was confronted on the domination I exert, I became defensive and frustrated. My female comrades helped me understand (after many discussions that we continue to have) that as we grow up we are dominated by our parents, teachers, doctors, police and a host of other
authority figures; men become conditioned by the domination and then dominate others.
The word sexist is very strong. A lot of men think of extreme forms of sexism and then distance themselves. Sexism in our group was/is subtle and at times painfully blatant. Women in the UAF were repeatedly being cut off in meetings and in the study group. Women's voices and opinions weren't respected as much as men's. In conversations women were often ignored and made to feel excluded; often being delegated to the role of spectator. As a result, women were not able to participate equally in decision making and that's not very anarchist.
The revolution truly begins with ourselves and however frustrating the process of re-educating ourselves may be, it is, in my opinion, the equivalent of entering the thresholds of freedom. Living together as equals is the very foundation of anarchist organizing.Several months ago, I was able to enjoy such an anarchistic environment (for the most part). A group called the Southern California Web Collective came together in Sept of 1992. As a group we decided to put together an anarchist gathering in Long Beach. We began to organize in October and scheduled the event for early December.
The Web collective was made up of anarchists from Long Beach, Los Angeles, Fullerton, Whittier and Hollywood. We met weekly for the next two months. There were about thirty of usand we broke into workgroups. Each workgroup had a task to accomplish: workshops, food, housing, child care, information booth, first aid, Free Day organizing, putting together the guide book, the benefit show, and creating the overall schedule. Each of the workgroups was accountable to the collective as a whole. We all participated in decision making. We made decisions using concensus rather than voting.
As anarchists outilizing anarchist principles, in two months we organized a three day gethering which included over 35 workshops, 5 hot meals served by Food Not Bombs Long Beach, a play on anarchist history (the Haymarket Martyrs), housing for over 200 participants, a benefit show with 5 bands and the Free Day picnic to share free clothes, toys, furniture and games a the Food Not Bombs serving. Just goes to show how far a little cooperation can go.
The conditioning process is one that we have been exposed to for as many years as we've been living, so it's really difficult to break out of these cycles. We must begin the de-conditioning process by talking with each other. Once we start to understand how we dominate others, we can start trying to end it. It is very important that we cooperate with one another and help each other through this experience. As we do this work we begin to leave the ruins of this oppressive society and begin building the free
society.
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