Interview with an agent of Curious George Brigade; the interview was made in december 2005 by the CrimethInc. SatisFaction also known as Autonomous Youth Collective.
Smokey from Curious George Brigade visited us on his way to the Balkan. He brought to our library some of CGB’s publications (like the Dinosaur book written on urban anarchism). We spent some time together which was quiet inspiring. On his last day in Budapest we made an interview with him about the following topics: the practical work of CGB, the anarchist activites after the New Orleans disaster, the squattin’ scene in New York, the problematic role of leaders in anarchist groups, folk anarchism etc.
audio version
text version
The fist, the red one, the rising one or the one which is bearing down always means the worker’s power. Visually its based on the German worker salutation. It became dominant in the fine arts after 1917 – specially where the international revolutionary movement caused sharp political situations. Around 1920 the fist has connection with class war situations; after 1930 under the influence of the international fascist breaking trough its meaning gets widened: it gets the signification of the most connected antifascist groups.
After WWII the rising fist, the threatening person or the person who is threatened has always antifascist meaning.
Its connection with solidarity gets tightened in the second half of the century – the original meaning expanded so as it could be used in more and more aspects of the workers movement.
made by Social Disease Kollektíva (SDK) aka CrimethInc. SatisFaction
Sdk. – This isn’t your first visit in Europe. Do you like this continent? And if you like it why don’t you move here?
Brian – The first time I came it was exciting to see all the things that were different from the US, and there was easy to imagine this was a paradise, […]
check out the homepage of the CrimethInc. band Requiem!
Our first english publication is out now in one thousand copies. We spread it for free wherever we go to give a tourist guide for those who wanna learn about the hungarian radical movements practices. Since we cannot give this papre to everyone, we made a web version of this paper, available here. Also we uploaded the huge files of the printable version for you to download it and distribute - look out its A/2 sized!
Under the pavement the beach
It was a terrible traffic jam of people on the way to the festival. The other bad thing was, that if I only bought a bottle of mineral water, I almost vomited from the stench of meat all round the Buffets. I wouldn’t even go out to a festival like this, unless a band like T(I)NC is coming. It was no problem to get to them anyway, so the security guard wasn’t that bad, as I suspected. If you meet them (I mean T(I)NC), there is no doubt, that they are really kind, honest people, who still have the same thoughts about this world, and they know, where they come from. I knew that they won’t behave the way some “rockstars” do, though i was a bit upset, because it was my first interview anyway. All in all, I just had a great chat with Dennis Lyxzén before the show. (And then, they played an awesome gig, so we had some... good clean funJ)
ALL FEMINISTS ARE GREEN, BUT NOT ALL GREENS ARE FEMINISTS?
During the last years there has been a slow but steady process of convergence between feminist and green NGOs and groups, partly caused by a love story involving a feminist girl and a green boy. The power of love established the link between the two spheres. But why are these two spheres? Green ideology includes all human rights advocacy, even women's rigths. In principle, feminism should be an integral part of green activity. However, the reality of the Hungarian scene defies the principle. All activists want to make principles reality, and the integration of green and feminist activity should be one of them!
The slow convergence uptil this point involved feminist articles in the local Indymedia website, some common actions and gatherings, and naturally heated discussions among the parties. Feminists say that "the personal is political". The local anarchist groups readily attempted to incorporate feminist principles into their daily workings. Globalisation-critical NGOs, however, seem to have a problem respecting women. When the issue was brought up in one of the leading Hungarian green NGOs, the dominant males of the "eco-political" organisation took it "personal" - as a personal offence. They described attempts by more englightened members to introduce feminist principles as a primitive which-hunting. I think the opposite: they are the ones who are in the dark middle ages (if there was ever such a thing), and think of themselves as God-sent rulers of the land.
All feminists are green, but not all greens are feminists?
On the other hand, the convergence meant little change in the day-to-day life of feminist groups. Green activists were surprised to find that their feminist counterparts are already collecting their garbage selectively, recycle printing paper and so on. The improvement to be desired there is more cooperation with the larger movement and greater breath of society's critique. I believe that both greens and feminists has a great deal to learn from each other, and realise the link that was so evident in the history of both movements, only for some reason underdeveloped in Hungary. I hope that in my next report on the issue I can write about green groups as feminist groups, and feminist groups as anticapitalists.
maxigas@anargeek.net
2006.01.13, Budapest, sitting in a carriage of the undergound train.
