Chuck Munson

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Chuck Munson (born 1965) is an American anarchist[1] in Kansas City, Missouri who currently runs the Alternative Media Project, Infoshop.org (an anarchist website),[2] and a weblog, "another blog is possible." He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting/Sculpture) from University of Kansas in 1988 and his Master of Arts in Library Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990.[3]

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[edit] Activism

Munson is active on many issues, ranging from media activism to prisoner rights to anti-globalization. He became radicalized at the University of Kansas (Lawrence) in the mid-1980s, helping organize protests against apartheid in South Africa and U.S. government intervention in Central America.[4] At one point he was the president of the K.U. Committee on South Africa.[citation needed] He was arrested in May 1986 in Chicago for disturbing the peace and failing to heed traffic laws during the centennial observance of the Haymarket affair.[4]

He has been involved with other anarchists in the anti-globalization movement. In 2000, he helped organize the follow-up protests in Washington, D.C. against the World Bank and IMF meetings ("A16").[4] During his time in Washington D.C. , he was cited as "one of the most public anarchists in the area" by The Washington Post, a newspaper he in turn described as "simply the official organ of the U.S. State Department."[4] In 2001, he helped found the Anti-Capitalist Convergence-DC, which organized protests against the World Bank and IMF in September 2001. Munson is active in the Indymedia movement, having been involved with the Global Indymedia website; Washington, D.C. IMC; and the current Indymedia project in Kansas City.[citation needed]

He was a co-founder of the Mutualaid.org ISP.[citation needed]

He is involved as an activist in the library profession on issues such as intellectual freedom, alternative media, and censorship; he ran two online projects, Stop Filtering and Censorware in Libraries and Anarchist Librarians Web in the late 1990s,[5] and in 2004 was one of the founders of the Radical Reference project.[citation needed]

[edit] Infoshop.org

Munson founded Infoshop.org, a popular anarchist website,[6] in January 1995 as the Mid-Atlantic Infoshop.[7] Munson had been working as a system librarian at University of Maryland-College Park, one of the perks of which was a free web account. Having previously co-founded an online archive of anarchist texts, the Spunk Library, in 1992, Munson established Infoshop as a general resource on anarchism, moving to the domain name Infoshop.org in 1998.[7] Munson reorganized the website as a collective project in 2001, and it is currently run by a core of seven people, supplemented by regular writers and volunteers.[7]

[edit] Thought

Munson considers anarchism to be the only sustainable way forward for humanity, claiming that "[t]raditional political ideologies have led the planet to ruin (capitalism and imperialism) or have prevented freedom (authoritarian communism)."[8] He considers anarchism to be a syncretic political movement, not limited to a "linear history of ideas".[8] Munson identifies as an anarchist without adjectives, describing himself as "an anarchist who is open-minded about anarchist ideas."[8] However, unlike anarchists without adjectives such as Fred Woodworth[9], he rejects the notion that anarcho-capitalism is a form of anarchism, citing its lack of opposition to "the hierarchical authoritarian capitalist workplace".[10] In an interview for The New York Times during the Republican Party political convention in New York City, published August 29, 2004, Munson compared anarchism to other radical movements, saying:

... we are a lot more anti-government, anti-state. We say that because we think people should have control of their lives at the individual and community level, a sort of radical participatory democracy." Asked about violence he replied, "I subscribe to a diversity of tactics, so I don't disavow violence. But I like to see nonviolence as much as possible."[1]

[edit] Publications

He has edited or published several zines and magazines, including Praxis (Lawrence, Kansas, 1980s), The Gentle Anarchist (Lawrence, Kansas, 1986-88), The Journal of Disjunctive Librarianship (Madison, Wisc., 1990), Practical Anarchy (1991-present), and Alternative Press Review (1997-2002). In 1992, he co-founded the Spunk Library along with Mikael Cardell, Jack Jansen, and Ian Heavens. The Spunk Library is an online collection of anarchist and alternative texts, and one of the first digital archives of any kind. In 1992 Munson, along with Cardell, started Practical Anarchy Online, which was one of the first e-zines during its brief existence. Munson has also contributed to CounterPunch.[11]

[edit] Articles

  • “What do radical librarians do? or, Which way to the black bloc?” in Revolting Librarians Redux: radical librarians speak out. edited by Katia Roberto and Jessamyn West. North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2003.
  • “WIPO: Have We Been Whipped by New Copyright Treaty?” Internet Trend Watch for Libraries, vol.2, no.4, April 1997.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Archibold, Randall C. (2004-08-29). Ideas & Trends -- Heartland Radical; Anarchy Explained. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-02-26.
  2. ^ Kirn, Walter (2000-04-16). The New Radicals. TIME. Retrieved on 2008-02-26.
  3. ^ about chuck. Another Blog is Possible. Mutualaid.org. Retrieved on 2008-02-26.
  4. ^ a b c d Leiby, Richard. "Anarchy, Anyone?", 2000-04-04. Retrieved on 2008-03-11. 
  5. ^ Staff (1998-02-02). "Anti-filtering Web Site Founder Fesses Up". Library Journal. 
  6. ^ "Making the News: Anarchist Counter-Public Relations on the World Wide Web". Lynn Owens and L. Kendall Palmer. Critical Studies in Media Communication. Vol.20, no. 4, December 2003, pp. 335-361. "Run predominantly by an individual anarchist activist in Washington D.C., the Infoshop offers frequently updated features on contemporary activism and social struggles"
  7. ^ a b c "Alasbarricadas interviews Infoshop founder, Chuck Munson", Infoshop.org, 2008-02-20.
  8. ^ a b c Munson, Chuck. why I am an anarchist. Another Blog is Possible. Mutualaid.org. Retrieved on 2008-03-11.
  9. ^ An essay by Fred Woodworth in Avrich, Paul (2006). Anarchist Voices. Stirling: AK Press, 475. ISBN 1904859275. 
  10. ^ Kakoulas, Marisa (2001-06-04). anarchy infighting. Disinfo.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-11.
  11. ^ Munson, Chuck (2004-11-30). Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization Movement. CounterPunch. Retrieved on 2007-07-31.

[edit] External links


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