This article deals with the US Love and Rage. Love and Rage was also the name of a Sydney student political organisation which was predominantly Autonomist Marxist and anarchist.
The Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation formed in 1993 out of the remaining groups in the Love and Rage Network.
The Love and Rage Network had its genesis in a November 1989 conference to launch a North American revolutionary anarchist newspaper. The "newspaper project" grew out of a series of North American Anarchist Gatherings in 1986 (Chicago), 1987 (Minneapolis), 1988 (Toronto) and 1989 (San Francisco) where a network of several anarchist collectives began to cohere. The main initiative came from the Minneapolis-based Revolutionary Anarchist Bowling League(RABL). The formerly Trotskyist Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL) was also one of the main forces behind this. The initial supporters included anarchist collectives from Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Atlanta, Toronto and Knoxville. They began publishing their bi-lingual newspaper - Love and Rage/Amor y Rabia -- in January 1990. Some anarchists were wary of the network and their federation, wondering if they were truly anarchist, some anarchists even wondered if the RSL was a Trotskyist group performing some kind of entryist tactic. Subsequent developments revealed the former RSL members to be among the most orthodox anarchists in the organization.
In its various incarnations (as newspaper, network and federation) Love and Rage had a strong activist orientation and its members participated in a variety of struggles around different issues. Love and Rage called the first national black bloc in the United States as a breakaway from the main body of a January 1991 March on Washington DC against the first Persian Gulf War which attacked the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund.
From the beginning Love and Rage members showed little regard for anarchist orthodoxies, taking stands in support of national liberation struggles and embracing a white skin privilege analysis of racism in the U.S., as well as arguing for the need for disciplined forms of revolutionary organization. These positions led many critics to accuse the organization of harboring Leninist tendencies.
In 1991 the groups putting out the newspaper formed the Love and Rage Network. That same year an anarchist gathering in Cuernavaca, Mexico led to the creation of the first Amor y Rabia group in Mexico City. In 1993 the Mexico City group, with the support of others in Mexico, began publishing their own newspaper, Amor y Rabia. The U.S. based newspaper became mono-lingual at this point and the Mexican paper was distributed to Spanish readers in the U.S..
In 1993, the core New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Mexico City groups and others expressed the desire for a tighter federal structure, which caused some other groups to leave and new people to join. This is when the Love and Rage Network was renamed the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation. At this time Love and Rage members were very active in doing anti-Klan and anti-Nazi work and in building up Anti-Racist Action (ARA). Others were active in defending abortion clinics and prisoner solidarity activism.
The 1994 Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico focused much of the attention of the organization on Zapatista solidarity work. Members of Amor y Rabia made quick contact with the Zapatistas and Love and Rage members in the United States were early participants in setting up Zapatista solidarity groups and in disseminating English translations of their communiques.
Love and Rage members also participated in a variety of fights against neo-liberal measures in the U.S.. These included the fight against budget cuts and tuition hikes at the City University of New York (CUNY) and a Living Wage campaign in Vermont.
By 1996 major divisions began to appear in the organization. Some of the most active members were moving away from anarchism. Another trend made up mainly of older and less active former members of the RSL argued for a more orthodox anarchist politics and in particular opposed the view that white workers enjoyed significant "white skin privileges." Many members were caught between the two organized trends and began to leave the organization. The Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation formally dissolved in 1998. The Fire by Night Organizing Committee was formed at this time by the first trend. Another group, made up of former members of the RSL began publishing The Utopian. And many other individuals went on to be active in anarchist and non-anarchist forms of activism.
While the membership of Love and Rage probably never exceeded 200 at any one time, several times that many people passed through the organization and it enjoyed an even larger circle of sympathizers and readers of its newspapers. Love and Rage had a very lively culture of internal debate that -- for most of its life -- successfully avoided sectarian bickering. Its main legacy was undoubtedly its influence on the political perspectives of many young activists who would go on to play major roles in the or anti-globalization movement, in particular their understanding of the distinct role of racism in the workings of U.S. society.
