An Anarchist Looks to Provide Logic To Coterie Leading WTO Vandalism

By PETER WALDMAN

Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

For a man who would like to smash civilization back 12,000 years to the era of hunters and gatherers, John Zerzan spends a lot of time in the library.

The 56-year-old writer provides the intellectual spunk to the so-called anarchist black block, of Eugene, Ore., the loose band of a couple dozen mostly white young people who led the rampage of vandalism on the streets of Seattle at last week's World Trade Organization conference. Although the masked vandals, who bitterly oppose private property, made up just a fraction of the 40,000 or so peaceful anti-WTO protesters, the black-block crowd -- and the estimated $2 million of property damage they caused -- stole the show.

And that, says Mr. Zerzan, who was there, was precisely the point. A bespectacled graybeard who dresses in plaids and khakis, the Oregon native is more anarchist egghead than revolutionary thug. Unmarried, he works in a day-care center taking care of children, lives in a cooperative apartment in a working-class section of Eugene, gets around by bike, bus and train, owns no computer, has no e-mail and never surfs the Internet. He has written two books, edited two more and written numerous essays that others have posted on anarchist Web sites based all over the globe. His creed: a peculiar brand of anarchism called "anarcho-primitivism."

Breaking Rules

Yet now is the time for action, not words, he says. Since his start in radical politics at San Francisco State University in the mid-1960s, Mr. Zerzan has watched protest movements repeatedly die at the feet of the monster he calls "the system." Why?

"Because if the game itself is the problem, you can't play by the rules," he says. "Holding hands and marching within the [protest] tableau that the system sets out for you hasn't worked. All these years, nothing has changed."

So Mr. Zerzan and the coterie of young anarchists who hang out with him in Eugene believe in striking at what they regard as the most sacred -- and vulnerable -- symbol of the system they despise: private property. In Eugene, members of groups calling themselves Black Army Faction and Black-Clad Messengers -- black block is a generic term referring to the most militant anarchists -- have vandalized several banks and other businesses this past year. They have argued in leaflets and in interviews with this newspaper that such property destruction is a legitimate form of "self defense" and shouldn't even be considered "violence."

Similarly, in Seattle, wanton as members appeared this past week, the black block's rampage through several downtown chain stores was meant to send a calculated message, not only to the WTO but especially to fellow protesters: No more business as usual.

Back to the Beginning

"People wouldn't be turning to property damage if things were amenable to rational change," Mr. Zerzan says, reeling off the litany of woes he believes are driving more people to despair. "Why do 40 million Americans take antidepressant drugs? ... Marx counted on economic suffering to cause revolution. Maybe it's psychic, spiritual suffering that will do it." For a fresh start, Mr. Zerzan advocates dismantling modern civilization to recreate the world of the paleolithic era -- the time 12,000 years ago before the advent of agriculture and animal husbandry. Back then, writes Mr. Zerzan in his 1994 book, "Future Primitive," people roamed free, lived off the land and knew little or nothing of private property, government, money, war, even sexism. In the wild, the shackles of civilization weren't necessary, as people were instinctively munificent and kind, the primitivist argument goes.

"Anthropologists ask why it took Homo sapiens a million years to do agriculture," says Mr. Zerzan. "I ask why they did it at all." Still, people who feel less inclined toward the paleolithic need not worry, Mr. Zerzan assures, for anarcho-primitivists eschew coercion and violence against humans, he says.

Speaking Engagements

"We are militant, but we are not into stocking up guns," says Mr. Zerzan. "What we need is a massive social movement, not people shooting people." Word is getting out, he says, citing his own busy schedule of lectures and radio talk shows and the scheduled arrival this week of a "60 Minutes" crew in Eugene for a segment on the anarchists. Several civic clubs in the university town also have invited anarchists to speak, which was unheard of just several months ago, Mr. Zerzan says.

But most telling of all, he claims, was the "encouraging" reaction of some trade unionists and "liberals" during the Seattle protests -- people exposed to the black block's rage for the first time. While many of the demonstrators shouted "shame, shame" at the vandals and tried to thwart their property attacks, others, after holding heated arguments in the streets, tacitly supported them, Mr. Zerzan says.

"I hope we're getting past the point of needing to throw bricks to get attention," he says. "But you really can't say violence doesn't produce anything. I wouldn't be talking to you right now if it weren't for the violence. It's sad but true."

Write to Peter Waldman at peter.waldman@wsj.com