Smashing Whiteness: Race, Class, Punk Culture, and Anarchist Anti-Fascism

Abstract

“Our biggest obstacle is that Love and Rage is still culturally very white….Smashing this culture of whiteness is a major task in becoming the kind of truly inclusive organization we are committed to building.” Thus argued a 1997 editorial that sparked controversy in the newspaper of the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation. The editorial intervened in an ongoing debate: should the predominantly white federation attempt to become multi-racial, or should it accept its whiteness and try to work in coalitions with
people of color? These debates exposed the internal contradictions of Love and Rage. Love and Rage (1989-1998), which was the most prominent US anarchist organization in the 1990s, was embedded in the largely white punk world even as its members attempted to move beyond it. Although punk had helped keep anarchism alive during the post-1960s neoliberal counterrevolution, particularly during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, members worried that punk’s white subcultural affinities excluded people of color and thus held back the federation’s revolutionary potential. Yet despite its contradictions and shortcomings, Love and Rage transformed the discourse and practice of anti-racism in the US anarchist movement. Influenced by a new generation of Black anarchists, they advocated militant anti-racism and “race traitor” politics that sought to abolish whiteness to build Anarchist Antiauthoritarian and Antifascist Cultural Politics revolution. Following this analysis, they were active in struggles against white supremacy and fascism, including by working with the leading anti-fascist organization of the period, Anti-Racist Action.