It is a commonly held thought that the constitution of the United States of America guarantees certain rights and liberties to citizens of the country. Contained in this list of entitlements are protections thought to be universal in the court system. Yet, a closer look into a particular section of the justice system reveals to many what is often a shocking reality; there is an institution within both state and federal governments which operates in secrecy and strips individuals of basic fundamental tights. The particular clause below contained in the Fifth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution is widely overlooked or clearly unseen;

No person shall be held to answer for a capitol, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or pubic danger (National Lawyers Guild, 1997, p. vii).

Political Correctness was around for many years before the mass media caught on. It is definitely not an invention of the late 1980's as many people seem to think. I recall hearing the term almost 25 years ago, used to describe the very sort of priggishness and authoritarianism encountered in the young woman who though it bourgeois to laugh. Political correctness was an insulting term to most of us. But early-format PC did harm the movement. There were certain things you would not dare to speak or write about. Our real opinions could only be aired among our closest friends, for if it came out that you thought Mao a mass murderer, the Black Panther Party a bunch of gangsters or that certain fringe ferminists were female fascists, you would find yourself attacked as 'reactionary', 'racist' and 'sexist'. And there was no place in the leftist counter-culture for anyone having to live under the burden of those epithets.

Our dream is to live free, destroying every form of established power and every hierarchy since these are the negation of this dream.

For us freedom cannot be separated from pleasure. Therefore, we are willing to make titanic efforts in order to realize freedom and pleasure, aware that freedom does not exist in sacrifice and immolation.

In this sense, the most complete experience that we now take the extravagance of living is that of self-organization which makes room for direct action, understood as open, collective, expansive experience that doesn't give a damn for the fences set up by the state between legality and illegality.

In 1990-91, I spoke with many mink farmers and researchers who, believing I was a mink farmer, instructed me in ways to avoid my mink from losing their recessive genetic structures that gave them the fur quality and color variation that separated them from their wild relations. Captive mink are genetically 95% similar to their wild counterparts. The only difference besides behavior being fur color and quality which is solely maintained by a scientifically controlled diet, which is key to maintaining their genetic differences from wild mink. Black and dark mink being the closest genetically to wild mink.

Jim Leischow, a second generation mink farmer from Kenosha, Wisconsin described to me in a discussion at the 1991 Seattle Fur Exchange auctions how without a scientifically controlled diet, mink on any fur farm would lose their recessive genes, and over-powered by their dominant wild genetic structure, return to their wild roots in just a few generations. Leischow also detailed how a mink escapee that breeds with a wild mink would produce offspring that in one more generation would have lost all traces of any altered genetic structure.

When we mount a movement to challenge power we must expect and prepare for repression as a matter of course. The resurgence of anti-authoritarian organizations has paralleled a general increase in militancy among progressive forces in North America. The predictable state response to this militancy has been increased repression, including political imprisonment.

There are currently well over 100 political prisoners and prisoners of war held in North American prisons, representing many diverse political movements. Among these are Native Americans, Puerto Rican independistas, Black/New Afrikan nationalists, white anti-imperialists and anti-nuclear, ecological, and animal liberation activists. There are also anarchist/autonomist/anti-authoritarian prisoners-- captured activists from our own movement.

A peasant woman lights a candle to the saint and prays that her young son will get well and the potato crop will be a big one this year. Her prayers, and the prayers of other peasants, have been answered before, claim the villagers. 'He looked just like Our Lord lying there dead in the schoolhouse', she tells the television interviewer. The name of this miracleworking saint? Ernesto Che Guevara!

Let's not laugh at these peasants. Don't look down upon them with 'developed world' arrogance. No doubt Che 'does' intervene n their poverty-stricken lives - as do all the other saints. And who are we to claim absolute knowledge of the world and human mind and all its workings?

Capitalism is a social relationship and not a citadel for the powerful. It is starting from this banality that one can confront the question of summits and counter-summits. Representing capitalist and state domination as a kind of general headquarters (it's a question of the G8, the WTO or some other such organization) is useful to those who would like to oppose that managing center with another center: the political structures of the so-called movement, or better, their spokespeople. In short, it is useful to those who propose merely a change in management personnel. Besides being reformist in essence and purpose, this logic becomes collaborationist and authoritarian in method, as it leads to centralization of the opposition.

It is perfectly legal to write letters of support to imprisoned A.L.F. and direct action activists. While it can be intimidating to write to someone you don't know, becoming a friend with a prisoner is well worth it. Even a short postcard may decrease a prisoner's feelings of isolation, and raises their spirits. Letters can be simple. Talk about yourself, your hobbies, interests, or what music you listen to. Prisoners may be interested in the campaigns of your local animal rights group. If you have questions about what prison is like, ask!

Anarchism has never found wide acceptance in North America. Neglecting the reasons why this did not happen in the past, it's necessary to ask why anarchism remains a marginal, misunderstood philosophy. Conditions certainly seem ripe for a flowering of anarchist ideas and activity. Popular mistrust of government and business, as measured by public opinion polls, is much higher than it was 25 years ago. Official unemployment figures continue to hover near seven percent, while actual unemployment is probably far higher. The suicidal madness of the arms race could hardly be plainer. And the bankruptcy of marxism is all too obvious. Marxist regimes the world over have utterly and abjectly failed to create anything approaching free, equalitarian societies.

Yet interest in anarchism and the amount of anarchist activity in North America remain pitifully small. Why? A large part of the blame must be assigned to the educational system, the mass media, organized religion, and the hierarchically structured unions which have strangled the labor movement. But external factors provide only a partial explanation. Internal factors must also be considered.

How much a personal philosophy is a matter of temperament and how much it results from experience is a moot question. Naturally we arrive at conclusions in the light of our experience, through the application of a process we call reasoning to the facts observed in the events of our lives. The child is susceptible to fantasy. At the same time he sees life more truly in some respects than his elders do as he becomes conscious of his surroundings. He has not yet become absorbed by the customs and prejudices which make up the largest part of what passes for thinking. Each child responds differently to his environment. Some become rebels, refusing to be dazzled by social superstitions. They are outraged by every injustice perpetrated upon them or upon others. They grow ever more sensitive to the suffering round them and the restriction registering every convention and taboo imposed upon them.