Anarchy in the Big Easy

"Anarchy in the Big Easy", by Max Cafard, Illustrated by Vulpes, 2025, 83 pages. A graphic history. Subtitled "A History of Revolt, Rebellion, and Resurgence".

Note, I think this is capital "A" Anarchy, not small "a" anarchy.

I'm not sure where I got this from. It was published by PM Press, to whose blog I subscribe, I may have liked the look of it in 1 of their posts. "PM Press is an independent, radical publisher of books and media to educate, entertain, and inspire."

So, an installment of history as told by the poor people, rather than the rich people. This kind of work always takes me back to Howard Zinn's "The People's History of the United States. I blogged about that just over 20 years ago, January 22, 2005.

My oldest daughter gave me Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" -- the story of the USA as told from the viewpoint of the fuckees rather than the fuckers.

So this picture book includes the history, politics, & economics of New Orleans, "the Big Easy", written by a loving native son.

So much of the history of the common folk is ignored, forgotten, deprecated. But so much of that history is the real history.

Some of these are FFTKAT - Fun Facts To Know And Tell. I will tag this post as such.

• Over the ages, some have understood that our Delta Home is looked over by a great anarchic Maternal power that gives us everything, while asking nothing in return.

  We might call this power "La Grande Indulgente",

  which translates as "The Big Easy."

• Economist, gambler and speculatator John Law made a deal with Louis XIV giving his Mississippi Company a monopoly on colonization. La Nouvelle Orleans, founded in 1718 became the capitol.

  The native population plummeted by 2/3, replaced by convicts, vagrants, & slaves.

• The escaped slaves allied with the native americans hiding in the bayous!

• The slaves eventually revolted & killed a few of the masters, FTW! The 1st revolt was in 1811.

• The early leader of free maroons, the maroon leader "San Malo" was hung in 1784.

• Filipinos deserting from Spanish galleons joined the outlaw communities.

• New Orleans was a leader in unionization. The First International, or International Workers Association, was founded in 1864.

• In 1894, a general strike closed down New Orleans. The workers, a broad coalition, won many concessions.

• In a streetcar strike in 1902, "the local police intervened - and arrested the scabs."

• In 1913, the AFL turned against the IWW (Wobblies) because they were too radical!

• A streetcar strike in 1929 shutdown the system for 2 weeks. Among goods donated by local businesses to union members were the sandwiches which famously became known as "po' boys"! Definitely a FFTKAT!

• Storyville, the red light district of New Orleans, was one of the birthplaces of Jazz.

• Jelly Roll Morton, who claimed to have invented jazz, was 1 of the best known early New Orleans Jazz musicians.

• The official New Orleans Carnavale (Mardi Gras) parade is capitalist phoniness. See, instead, the Carnival of the People, or the Trash Parade.

• The line from the well-known Cajun song "Iko Iko", "chock-a-ma-fee-na-hey" translates as "kiss my fuckin' ass". Nice! I believe it, the song is very agressive "My grandma told your grandma, we're gonna burn your flag.".

• The fabulous social programs established by the Black Panthers in 1970 meant nothing. Black Men with guns => serious prison time. Respect the 2A my ass! 2A was to allow slave militias in the south, southerners know that, 2A is NOT about black men having guns. It is about black men being murdered with impugnity.

• The mutual aid that sprang up after the worst hurricanes, particularly Katrina, was targetted for suppression by the authorities!

• In 2016, anarchists got involved in the removal of confederate statues. Good for them.

• Today in New Orleans, most anarchist projects are grounded in a practice of critical, revolutionary mutual aid.

  This ranges from official groups such as New Orleans Mutual Aid Group, the indigenous group Bulbancha Collective, and the food autonomy network Labelia Commons,

  to more spontaneous forms of mutual aid that flourish in the aftermath of hurricanes, tornadoes and now the Covid 19 pandemic.

The book ends with a list of dozens of current anarchist groups in New Orleans. I'm going to posit that anarchists are de facto antifa, which means that all these groups are currently communists heading for a gulag! Land of the free! Home of the brave! My ass!!!