In many cities in the United States, anarchists have organized
"Food Not
Bombs" feeds. The organizers of these projects will explain
that food
should be free, that no one should ever have to go hungry.
Certainly a fine
sentiment...and one to which the anarchists respond in
much the same way as
christians, hippies or left liberals -- by starting a
charity.
We will be told, however, that "Food Not Bombs" is different.
The decision-
making process used by the organizers is nonheirarchical.
They recieve no
government or corporate grants. In many cities, they
serve their meals as
an act of civil disobedience, risking arrest. Obviously,
"Food Not Bombs"
is not a large-scale charitable bureaucracy; in fact,
it is often a very
slip-shod effort...but it is a charity -- and that is
never questioned by
its anarchist organizers.
Charities are a necessary part of any economic social
system. The scarcity
imposed by the economy creates a situation in which some
people are unable
to meet their most basic needs through the normal channels.
Even in nations
with highly developed social welfare programs, there
are those who fall
through the cracks in the system. Charities take up the
slack where the
state's welfare programs can't or won't help. Groups
like "Food Not Bombs"
are, thus a voluntary workforce helping to preserve the
social order by
reinforcing the dependence of the poor upon programs
not of their own
creation.
No matter how non-heirarchal the decision-making process
used by the
relationship is always authoritarian. The beneficiaries
of a charity are at
the mercy of the organizers of the program and so are
not free to act on
their own terms in this relationship. This can be seen
in the humiliating
way in which one must recieve charity. Charity feeds
like "Food Not Bombs"
require the beneficiaries to arrive at a time not of
their choosing in
order to stand in line to recieve food not of their choosing
(and usually
poorly made) in quantities doled out by some volunteer
who wants to make
sure that everyone gets a fair share. Of course, it's
better than going
hungry, but the humiliaton is at least as great as that
of waiting in line
at the grocery store to pay for food one actually wants
and can eat when
one wants it. The numbness we develop to such humiliation
-- the numbness
which is made evident by the case with which certain
anarchists will opt to
eat at charity feeds every day in order to avoid paying
for food, as though
there were no other options -- shows the extent to which
our society is
permeated with such humiliating interactions. Still,
one would think that
anarchists would refuse such interactions as far as it
lies within their
power to do so and would seek to create interactions
of a different sort in
order to destroy the humiliation imposed by society.
Instead, many create
programs that reinforce this humiliation.
But what of the empathy one may feel for another who is
suffering from a
poverty one knows all too well; what of the desire to
share food with
others? Programs like "Food Not Bombs" do not express
empathy, they express
pity. Doling out food is not sharing; it is an impersonal,
hierarchical
relationship between social role "donor" and social role
"beneficiary".
Lack of imagination has led anarchists to deal with the
question of hunger
(which is an abstract question for most of them) in much
the same way as
christians and liberals, creating institutions which
parallel those which
already exist. As is to be expected when anarchists attempt
to do an
inherently authoritarian task, they do a piss-poor job...Why
not leave
charity work to those who have no illusions about it?
Anarchists would do
better to find ways of sharing individually if they are
so moved, ways
which encourage self-determination rather than dependence
and affinity
rather than pity.
There is nothing anarchist about "Food Not Bombs". Even
the name is a
demand being made to the authorities. This is why its
organizers so
frequently use civil disobedience -- it is an attempt
to appeal to the
consciences of those in power, to get them to feed and
house the poor.
There is nothing in this program that encourages self-determination.
There
is nothing that would encourage the beneficiaries to
refuse that role and
begin to take what they want and need without following
the rules. "Food
Not Bombs", like every other charity, encourages its
beneficiaries to
remain passive recipients rather than becoming active
creators of their own
lives. Charity must be recognized for what it is: another
aspect of the
institutionalized humiliation inherent in our economized
existence which
must be destroyed so we can fully live.