Chaz Bufe

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Charles Bufe, better known as Chaz Bufe, is a contemporary American anarchist author. Bufe writes on a wide variety of topics, and has published 16 books, most under the See Sharp Press imprint but one ("Godless") was published by PM Press and another ("Dreams of Freedom") by AK Press.

Contents

Life

Chaz Bufe is principally known as an anarchist publisher and author. Originally from Arizona, he was influenced by the anarchist magazine The Match! published by Fred Woodworth in Tucson, AZ. He received a Bachelor of Music Theory and Composition from Boise State University in 1979. He moved to San Francisco in 1982 and became a member of the anarchist Bound Together Bookstore Collective in San Francisco. He also wrote for and did design, layout, and editing for several anarchist and far-left periodicals including Processed World , a magazine which was written by and for "dissident office workers".

The magazine sustained years of attacks by attorney and police informant Bob Black, and his followers, with many of the attacks being of a highly personal nature. The attacks included the slashing of "Processed World" issues on newsstands and the attempted firebombing of their office on Rincon Hill. (Black fled California after being handed a court summons at a law class he was teaching at UC Berkeley.) Bufe defended the magazine in an influential pamphlet titled "Listen Anarchist," which led to an ad hominem attack in pamphlet form by two of Black's allies, and which Freedom Fortnightly (London) labeled as "crazy".

While in San Francisco, Bufe founded See Sharp Press in 1984 [1] and eventually relocated to Tucson Arizona in 1992. In the approximately 40 years of its existence, See Sharp Press has published over 50 books, almost as many pamphlets, and for the last decade has been publishing occasional e-book-only titles.

Of the 16 books Bufe authored, co-authored, compiled/edited, or translated, 11 are still in print, and several of those have gone through multiple printings.

Reviews have been mixed, but mostly positive, with favorable reviews in publications such as Publishers Weekly ("Free Radicals"), Z Magazine ("Heretic's Handbook of Quotations"), Free Inquiry ("American Heretic's Dictionary"), Booklist ("Free Radicals"), Guitar Player ("An Understandable Guide to Music Theory"), and Jazz Player ("An Understandable Guide to Music Theory"). His "American Heretic's Dictionary"/"Devil's Dictionaries" went through several printings, and reviewer's either loved or hated it. It was referenced by IslamOnline, recommended by Cape Cod Times [2] and he has been called "the Ambrose Bierce of our time" from AlterNet. [3] [4] Bufe is also a musician, and author of An Understandable Guide to Music Theory, now in its third edition. [5] He translated the only English-language collection of the writings of Ricardo Flores MagónFlores Magón Dreams of Freedom: A Ricardo Flores Magón Reader – and translated the Spanish language book Cuban Anarchism: The History of a Movement by Frank Fernández (writer) into English as well as Venezuela: Revolution as Spectacle, by Rafael Uzcategui.

Publications

Books

Pamphlets and E-books

Listen, Anarchist!

[Listen Anarchist!] is sure to become one of the most bitterly hated, fought over, and denounced tracts about Anarchism that has appeared in the last twenty years. The reason is that Bufe comes right out and says what he has to say, rather than couching it in a lot of dreary, boring, diffuse verbiage ... Nobody can mistake his meaning; nobody can pontificate on what he "really meant" to say, and for this reason you should read this pamphlet.

Fred Woodworth, The Match! , Issue #80, Fall 1985

Listen, Anarchist! is an influential 1987 essay by Bufe on the internal dynamics of the American anarchist movement. [6]

In this essay, Bufe [7] launches heavy criticism against anarcho-primitivists, including Fredy Perlman and the Vancouver Five eco-terrorist group, as well as the publications Fifth Estate , Resistance, The Spark, and Open Road. [6] In a section entitled "What Can Be Done?", Bufe advocates minimal use of violence in revolutionary political struggle, condemning the vanguardist "urban guerillas" of insurrectionary anarchism. He criticizes these and other so-called "lifestyle" anarchists in the movement for deliberately alienating mainstream society, and falling to victim to dangerous irrationality and mysticism. [8]

In his account of "marginalised" anarchists, Bufe criticizes the anti-work tendency in contemporary anarchism, accusing some of its advocates of being parasites of those who do work. [8] In response, Feral Faun wrote an article called "The Bourgeois Roots of Anarcho-Syndicalism" in which he claims that the endorsement of work showed that anarcho-syndicalists "embrace the values essential to capitalism", only objecting to who is in charge. [9] The Summer 2005 issue of Green Anarchy included an "update on workerist morality", in which they characterised "Listen, Anarchist!" as Sam Dolgoff's Relevance and Murray Bookchin's "Listen Marxist!" poorly rewritten by Bufe to "shake his fist at all the young rapscallions who were throwing rocks at his perfect, beautiful philosophy". [10]

In the introduction to the second edition, Janet Biehl proposes that many of the tendencies within anarchism that Bufe criticizes stem from its individualist wing, inspired by the philosophy of Max Stirner, which she maintains is the source of "lifestyle anarchists" who are at odds with the ethical socialist tradition of anarchism. [11] Biehl criticizes the perceived lack of concern for morality among post-left anarchists such as Bob Black. [11]

Allan Antliff described the work as "abusive", and said that its distribution by the Workers Solidarity Alliance belied the organisation's pretensions of anti-sectarianism. [6] Mutualist Kevin Carson recommended the pamphlet as suggested reading for "getting from here to there". [12]

Criticism

Bufe's "A Future Worth Living" and "Design Your Own Utopia" were critically reviewed by Bob Black in "Bufe Goof" and "Views From Nowhere", respectively. [13] [14]

Related Research Articles

Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including nation-states, and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state with stateless societies and voluntary free associations. As a historically left-wing movement, this reading of anarchism is placed on the farthest left of the political spectrum, usually described as the libertarian wing of the socialist movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anarcho-capitalism</span> Political philosophy and economic theory

Anarcho-capitalism is an anti-statist, libertarian political philosophy and economic theory that seeks to abolish centralized states in favor of stateless societies with systems of private property enforced by private agencies, the non-aggression principle, free markets and self-ownership, which extends the concept to include control of private property as part of the self. In the absence of statute, anarcho-capitalists hold that society tends to contractually self-regulate and civilize through participation in the free market, which they describe as a voluntary society involving the voluntary exchange of goods and services. In a theoretical anarcho-capitalist society, the system of private property would still exist and be enforced by private defense agencies and/or insurance companies selected by customers, which would operate competitively in a market and fulfill the roles of courts and the police.

Individualist anarchism is the branch of anarchism that emphasizes the individual and their will over external determinants such as groups, society, traditions and ideological systems. Although usually contrasted to social anarchism, both individualist and social anarchism have influenced each other. Some anarcho-capitalists claim anarcho-capitalism is part of the individualist anarchist tradition, while others disagree and claim individualist anarchism is only part of the socialist movement and part of the libertarian socialist tradition. Mutualism, an economic theory sometimes considered a synthesis of communism and property, has been considered individualist anarchism and other times part of social anarchism. Many anarcho-communists regard themselves as radical individualists, seeing anarcho-communism as the best social system for the realization of individual freedom. Economically, while European individualist anarchists are pluralists who advocate anarchism without adjectives and synthesis anarchism, ranging from anarcho-communist to mutualist economic types, most American individualist anarchists of the 19th century advocated mutualism, a libertarian socialist form of market socialism, or a free-market socialist form of classical economics. Individualist anarchists are opposed to property that violates the entitlement theory of justice, that is, gives privilege due to unjust acquisition or exchange, and thus is exploitative, seeking to "destroy the tyranny of capital, — that is, of property" by mutual credit.

Anarchist communism, also known as anarcho-communism, communist anarchism, or libertarian communism. is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retention of personal property and collectively-owned items, goods, and services. It supports social ownership of property and the distribution of resources "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Zerzan</span> American anarchist and primitivist philosopher

John Edward Zerzan is an American anarchist and primitivist author. His works criticize agricultural civilization as inherently oppressive, and advocates drawing upon the ways of life of hunter-gatherers as an inspiration for what a free society should look like. Subjects of his criticism include domestication and symbolic thought.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ricardo Flores Magón</span> 19/20th-century Mexican anarchist, social reform activist, and revolutionary

Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magón was a Mexican anarchist and social reform activist. His brothers Enrique and Jesús were also active in politics. Followers of the Flores Magón brothers were known as Magonistas. He has been considered an important participant in the social movement that sparked the Mexican Revolution.

Anarchists have employed certain symbols for their cause, including most prominently the circle-A and the black flag. Anarchist cultural symbols have been prevalent in popular culture since around the turn of the 21st century, concurrent with the anti-globalization movement. The punk subculture has also had a close association with anarchist symbolism.

The history of anarchism is ambiguous, primarily due to the ambiguity of anarchism itself. Scholars find it hard to define or agree on what anarchism means, which makes outlining its history difficult. There is a range of views on anarchism and its history. Some feel anarchism is a distinct, well-defined 19th and 20th century movement while others identify anarchist traits long before first civilisations existed.

Anarchist economics is the set of theories and practices of economic activity within the political philosophy of anarchism. Many anarchists are anti-authoritarian anti-capitalists, with anarchism usually referred to as a form of libertarian socialism, i.e. a stateless system of socialism. Anarchists support personal property and oppose capital concentration, interest, monopoly, private ownership of productive property such as the means of production, profit, rent, usury and wage slavery which are viewed as inherent to capitalism.

The nature of capitalism is criticized by left-wing anarchists, who reject hierarchy and advocate stateless societies based on non-hierarchical voluntary associations. Anarchism is generally defined as the libertarian philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary and harmful as well as opposing authoritarianism, illegitimate authority and hierarchical organization in the conduct of human relations. Capitalism is generally considered by scholars to be an economic system that includes private ownership of the means of production, creation of goods or services for profit or income, the accumulation of capital, competitive markets, voluntary exchange and wage labor, which have generally been opposed by most anarchists historically. Since capitalism is variously defined by sources and there is no general consensus among scholars on the definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category, the designation is applied to a variety of historical cases, varying in time, geography, politics and culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lev Chernyi</span> Leading figure of the Third Russian Revolution (died 1921)

Lev Chernyi was a Russian individualist anarchist theorist, activist and poet, and a leading figure of the Third Russian Revolution. In 1917, Chernyi was released from his political imprisonment by the Imperial Russian regime, and swiftly became one of the leading figures in Russian anarchism. After strongly denouncing the new Bolshevik government in various anarchist publications and joining several underground resistance movements, Chernyi was arrested by the Cheka on a charge of counterfeiting and in 1921 was executed without trial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anarchism and the arts</span> Association of anarchism with the arts

Anarchism has long had an association with the arts, particularly with visual art, music and literature. This can be dated back to the start of anarchism as a named political concept, and the writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon on the French realist painter Gustave Courbet. In an essay on Courbet of 1857 Proudhon had set out a principle for art, which he saw in the work of Courbet, that it should show the real lives of the working classes and the injustices working people face at the hands of the bourgeoisie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anarchism in Mexico</span> Anarchism

Anarchism in Mexico, the anarchist movement in Mexico, extends from Plotino Rhodakanaty's organization of peasant workers in the 1890s, to Ricardo Flores Magón's activism prior to the Mexican Revolution, to the punk subcultures of the 1990s.

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary and harmful as well as opposing authority and hierarchical organization in the conduct of human relations. Proponents of anarchism, known as anarchists, advocate stateless societies based on non-hierarchical voluntary associations. While anarchism holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary and harmful, opposition to the state is not its central or sole definition. Anarchism can entail opposing authority or hierarchy in the conduct of all human relations.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to anarchism:

Contemporary anarchism within the history of anarchism is the period of the anarchist movement continuing from the end of World War II and into the present. Since the last third of the 20th century, anarchists have been involved in anti-globalisation, peace, squatter and student protest movements. Anarchists have participated in armed revolutions such as in those that created the Makhnovshchina and Revolutionary Catalonia, and anarchist political organizations such as the International Workers' Association and the Industrial Workers of the World have existed since the 20th century. Within contemporary anarchism, the anti-capitalism of classical anarchism has remained prominent.

Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas is a three-volume anthology of anarchist writings edited by historian Robert Graham. The anthology is published by Black Rose Books. Each selection is introduced by Graham, placing each author and selection in their historical and ideological context. The focus of the anthology is on the origins and development of anarchist ideas; it is not a documentary history of the world's anarchist movements, although the selections are geographically diverse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magonism</span> Anarcho-communist ideology first described by the revolutionary Flores Magón brothers

Magonism is an anarchist, or more precisely anarcho-communist, school of thought precursor of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. It is mainly based on the ideas of Ricardo Flores Magón, his brothers Enrique and Jesús, and also other collaborators of the Mexican newspaper Regeneración, as Práxedis Guerrero, Librado Rivera and Anselmo L. Figueroa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William C. Owen</span>

William Charles Owen (1854–1929) was a British–American anarchist best known for his activism during the Mexican Revolution and English-language translations of Mexican anarchist Ricardo Flores Magón.

References

  1. "About See Sharp Press". See Sharp Press. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  2. Gonsalves, Sean (2005-07-12). "Not-so-best-selling summer reading list". Cape Cod Times . 10B4F2E766FF1010.
  3. Bufe has been accused of vanity and bad taste for mixing his own aphorisms with the classic aphorisms of Ambrose Bierce in order to get them published. Arbuthnot, Felicity (2004-04-21). "Iraq... The Aftermath". IslamOnline . Retrieved 2008-04-08.
  4. Gonsalves, Sean (2007-06-04). "The Art of Aphorisms". AlterNet. Archived from the original on 2008-04-10. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
  5. "Patty Horn, Daniel Asia keeping busy". The Arizona Daily Star . 1994-10-30.
  6. 1 2 3 Antliff, Allan (2004). Only a Beginning. Arsenal Pulp Press. p.  278. ISBN   1-55152-167-9.
  7. Williams, Leonard (September 2007). "Anarchism Revived". New Political Science. 29 (3): 297–312. doi:10.1080/07393140701510160. S2CID   220354272.
  8. 1 2 Bufe, Chaz. "Listen, Anarchist!". Archived from the original on 2012-11-23. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
  9. Feral Faun. "The Bourgeois Roots of Anarcho-Syndicalism". Green Anarchy . Archived from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2017-02-04.
  10. Waldorf and Statler (Summer 2005). "News From the Balcony with Waldorf and Statler". Green Anarchy (20). Archived from the original on August 7, 2007. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
  11. 1 2 Biehl, Janet. "Introduction". Listen, Anarchist!. Archived from the original on 2012-11-23. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
  12. Carson, Kevin. "Suggested Reading". Mutualism.org. Archived from the original on 2008-09-18. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
  13. Bob Black. "Bufe Goof". inspiracy.com. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
  14. Bob Black. "Views From Nowhere". The Anarchist Library. Retrieved April 1, 2013.