Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

116 I Ramnalh
rotating basis, and before long were sharing fleas. Mukerji
earned their keep, while the others read, philosophized,
and ranted.
At one point, the IWW local allowed them to sleep on
the floor of its hall in exchange for four weekly street corner
lectures. Mukerji carried the box. Bur while Leo and Jerry
proved brilliant at holding forth on the abolition of church
and state, it seemed Jerry could or would not comply with
the IWW request that he "insist in his speeches on industrial
control by the workers." Rather, Jerry "insisted that even
industrial control should not be in the hands of the workers,
because that would be a violation of individualism." So the
IWW withdrew the offer, and the trio was again on its own.
Yet that was not the end Mukerji's encounter with
syndicalism-an idea personified for him by Frank
Bonnington. Whereas Jerry epitomized the refusal to engage
society in any way, Bonnington was committed to
engaging with, contributing to, and transforming it.
Bonnington was the scion of a southern patrician exslaveholding
family and a graduate of the University of
Virginia. But he had rejectecl that life for ngabondagc,
walking across the country, sleeping under the stars, and
eating out of garbage cans. Bonnington told them, "I had
no desire to love humanity. I had no desire to do good; I
had no desire even to improve mysel£ But a sudden vision
seized me and compelled me to believe that a higher social
order is essential for the growth of the free spirit. I believe
that there will be a dissolution of church, state and society
in a higher human organism. I believe in freedom so
heartily that I am enslaved to my dream of freedom."