Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies 1.2011

The topic for this issue is the tenth anniversary of 9/11, with the following intro:
This issue of Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies considers the anarchist milieu in the ten years since the attacks of September 11th, 2001 (hereafter "9/11"). A host of obvious questions accompany an attempt to encapsulate an event such as 9/11 and the ten years that followed, foremost among them: Why situate 9/11 as a date of exceptional importance? Does a reflection of this kind merely contribute to, for example, neoconservative attempts to enshrine 9/11 as a propagandistic tool? Memorialization often carries reactionary politics, whether intentional or not.

Anarchist responses varied, but may be summed up by the title of punk band Leftover Crack’s 2004 album: Fuck World Trade. The title actually originated in a pre-9/11 work by Choking Victim, a continuity of political analysis, however crude, I wish to explore in more detail later. Anarchists, I argue, were among the few radicals whose analysis of history and power was not transformed, directly or indirectly, by the events of 9/11; whereas many liberals and progressives either became flag-waving robots in the aftermath of 9/11, or employed forms of analysis that resembled the neoconservative propaganda of the epoch.1 Below I examine examples of the latter from noted intellectuals Slavoj Žižek, Jean Baudrillard and Jacques Derrida. I do not believe these intellectuals espoused neoconservative politics; however, it is striking to note how significant features of their analyses, especially the way they framed the importance of 9/11 and the nature of future “threats,” resembled the contours of the neoconservative propaganda of the immediate post-9/11 era.

Despite the murkiness of the cover (both in image and in connection to the topic), this issue of ADCS is already getting good reviews from people looking for reasoned and academic thoughts on anarchism.