Gabriel Brown of NATA-NY (National-Anarchist Tribal Alliance, New York) talks about his journey to Anarchism and what Anarchism is. Mr. Brown's statement can be viewed below the videos.
Part 1
Part 2
01. So, if you could all introduce yourselves?
My name is Gabriel Brown. I’m from Long Island, New York,
I’m 30 years old and currently employed as a deckhand doing shellfish
harvesting with a friend on a clam boat and I am an anarchist.
02. Tell me why you're an anarchist?
One of several reasons why I’m an Anarchist is because our
current system has become chaotic without regard for the very people it claims
to serve and I believe in the concept of absolute freedom and sovereignty for
the individual and local community. What I have noticed is that the U.S.
government and statism in particular represent absolute oppression and
enslavement of the individual and community by the collective coercive
centralized state. When you have a greater degree of freedom for the individual
and community, you will see a better quality of living and this concept spoke
to me rather well.
03. Why it's an important ethos?
Anarchism is an important ethos to me because it is a
philosophy which speaks about helping give a person the ability to fully
manifest their true infinite creative potential into reality without
restriction, oppression or the assumption that only expanded centralized
government, monopoly corporate power, or perceived “authority” is capable of
manifesting an orderly, peaceful, voluntary, libertarian society into reality
through dictation and coercive control. It is a philosophy worthy of great
merit that promotes pure freedom through self-reliance, self-determination, and
the importance of leading by example. I see Anarchism as a tool of application
that can provide a variety of solutions within a more localized decentralized
context to fix many of the problems that have been created by the state and
plutocratic corporations that have centralized power amongst themselves. Anarchism
can be applied to a multitude of ideas economic, social, spiritual etc.. And
has the potential to speak to many individuals from different backgrounds for
different reasons.
04. How you became an anarchist?
The reasons why I became an Anarchist have a great deal to
do with my political evolution from my teenage years all the way up to this
current point in time. My experience in middle and high school had been rather
negative. There had been a great deal of censorship by the administration of both
my art and ideas. It seemed the school environment was developing in the
direction of a prison rather than an educational institution. So called Left
wing oriented politics were ultimately the dominating view point within the
public school system, and even to a degree within my own family. So after 9/11
had taken place, I ended up gravitating toward so called Right Wing political
viewpoints. Eventually I became very supportive of the Bush administration
seeing and believing the lies and propaganda that was sold to me by what I
consider now to be our corporate state run media. Naively buying into the left
~ right paradigm I ended up voting for George W. Bush in the 2004 elections, as
a registered independent. I was under the impression that elections were not
rigged the way I understand them to be today. Once George W. Bush had
supposedly won that election, I believed he would finally deliver on the
promises of proactively defending America. At this time I perceived foreign
dictators being a major problem around the world and felt that the oppressed
people of those nations were having their talents restricted and prevented from
reaching their full potential. So for a time I embraced the idea of regime
change to remove oppressive dictators to give people a chance to advance
humanity and to bring about new ideas. During my employment history at retail
jobs, I had watched companies downsize, cut medical benefits, hourly pay, and
even made it far more difficult to apply for employment. More and more I began
noticing how corners were being cut, and how local businesses were becoming
less and less common around the community. Between experiencing how the public
school system, the monopoly corporations, and the political parties operated,
and watching the system destroy my step father’s small business, I became
disillusioned with the system and its legitimacy. During late 2007, I began
learning more about issues like the Federal Reserve, and got interested in
third party movements and candidates, beyond the Democrats and Republicans. I
became active with the Ron Paul Movement in 2008 which opened my eyes up to
myriad political, economic, and social issues. My involvement with the greater
libertarian movement and philosophy gave me the opportunity to meet a variety
of activists from many different perspectives who helped me better understand
anarchism and its relation to a voluntary society based on liberty. Before this
I had a great deal of misconceptions regarding Anarchism due to the negative
image associated with individuals who typically called themselves “Anarchists”.
Many of whom were of a left wing perspective, very similar to main stream
liberal democrats, or Marxists. Anarchism was explained to me in a greater
degree of context having far more in common with the ideas of people like
Thomas Jefferson and the founding principles of our country within the
Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights than they did with juvenile
destructive behavior or communist provocateurs portrayed in the major media.
Instead of understanding Anarchism as “no rules”, it was explained to me that
the word literally meant “no rulers”. After having time to evaluate concepts
such as anarchism, decentralization, local autonomy and voluntarism it became
clear to me that anarchism was not chaos and negativity but rather it was
self-responsibility, meritocracy and individual/community initiative. From
these Libertarian and Voluntarist principles, I gravitated toward Anarchism in
its various different hyphenations and came to the realization that I had
always been to a degree an Anarchist even back when I supported the state. I
became an Anarchist because it helped me further my development to move beyond
the left ~ right paradigm.
05. What you are doing now - and how do you live like an anarchist?
As an Anarchist, I have tried to live by the very ideas that
I preach of to the best of my ability. I’ve taken the initiative to get
involved with street activism in various movements on the “left” and “right”
from the antiwar movement to the anti-federal Reserve and 9/11 truth movements.
This includes conversing with people about anarchist philosophy and the
practical application of these ideas. The National-Anarchist Tribal Alliance of
New York or (NATA-NY) and myself have spearheaded feeding the homeless, food
and clothing drives for the needy, and environmental beach clean-ups, to name a
few things. I also support small businesses around my community including
working freelance at an independent business outside of the corporate structure
and have done organic farming at one of the few remaining farms here on Long
Island. Doing many of these things helps lead by example teaching people
leadership skills to engage in many of these activities without depending on
state initiative. Doing for ourselves and communities rather than relying on
outsiders. This helps motivate people to get more involved and feel a sense of
empowerment overall. I’ve also been volunteering part time with different
projects and tasks with the National Anarchist Tribal Alliance of NY's
intentional community homesteading projects on our farm in upstate NY. This
includes Organic permaculture and agrarian forestry, beekeeping, carpentry, and
many other tasks. I tend to spend at least one moment of just about every day
doing something active in promoting the ideas of liberty and anarchism it all
incrementally adds up. 6. What are NATAs plans for the farm and the future for
your community? It is our intention to continue putting together all that is
necessary for our farm and community to be as autonomous and self-reliant as
possible. This includes expanding the use of green energy, food production, and
building up our infrastructure, etc. so that members of NATA, other anarchists
and our allies will have a space free from state/corporate dependence and
control.
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