Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library

INTERVIEW WITH BRRRY PRTE MRN
ing class sovereign (Owns like Homestead, PA, with the National Guard. All
that makes a difference. You can't get away with it now. Enough vic(Ories have
been won so that repression has been reduced. Look at the simple question of
how many workers get killed in labor actions. It used to be very high-it went
up until the late 1930s. I can remember as a kid, workers getting killed in labor
actions by security guards, Pinkertons and police, and that has stopped. Maybe
occasionally it happens but it's a substantial change.
At the Emma Goldman Papers we look at the New York Times or we get
students to look at the daily papers from the 1890s. Every week there was a
worker getting killed.
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J saw it as a kid. J have childhood memories of watching policemen wade
into women snikers at a textile plant and beating the shit Out of them. And, I
don't think you'd get away with it now. Alright, and that generalizes. Just like
it would be much harder now for the u.s. to instiwte a military coup in Brazil
than it was 40 years ago. Much harder in fact, probably impossible. Because
there have been just enough changes that people won't accept it anymore and
the structures of power have dissolved. In fact, many of the structures of power
;an: vry fr;Jgil. A 1m of rht:m h;av shifrt:rl from rlirc.r c:oerc:ion m inrloc:rrin;a­
tion and thought and attitude control. It's bad enough to have your kids bombarded
with horrendous television, but it's a lot different than having them
beaten over the head by police and having torture chambers around. So [hose
changes mean that there are many more options for peaceful change.
But it daes make it more complex to fire back? At least if there is a Pinkerton
guard you know who your enemy is.
Yes, you know who your enemy is. When it's your friendly executive from
this awful corporation claiming to be on the same side you are on, it's harder,
but it doesn't mean it's impossible. A couple days ago I was giving a talkwhich
I do every year-to a terrific group of mostly young labor activists at
Harvard, which is run by a fantastic person, Elaine Bernard. She is a real
dynamic, livewire labor activist, feminist, just terrific . This program for bringing
the young labor leaders into Harvard was begun around 1940 as parr of the
corporate academic reaction to the perceived threat-real threat--of signifigam
radical labor action that revolutionized the country. The sit-down strike
was just one thought away from taking over the plant. It was really close. As
parr of the technique fo r undermining that, as it was becoming harder to use
Pinkerton guards and police to break up this up, it became understood that
what you have to do is socialize the rising young labor leadership, civilize them,
reach them by bringing them to Harvard, and do what Harvard is good at. In
fact, what it does with its own students: teach them how (0 have polite conversations,
have class solidarity, drink the right wine, pick up the right attitudes