Has there ever been an anarchist analysis of street gangs?

Question

It seems remarkable to me that street gangs have managed to become a relatively powerful force in certain cities.

Of course, they tend to be kind of a re-creation of capitalism and hierarchical political structures on a micro level, but those aren't the features I'm particularly interested in.

What I find interesting is the idea of people who've been excluded from the benefits of capitalist society deciding to band together for their own self-interest, regardless of legality, and seemingly with the ability to include a large, semi-autonomous membership.

And then there are the more [sociological? psychological?] considerations - the ability of gangs to create a sense of identity, community, and solidarity. Obviously those are things that people need, and are perhaps occasionally lacking in other identities - in my own experience, I always derived these things from cultural and political identities like "punk" and "anarchist", respectively, but at some point discovered that other punks and anarchists didn't necessarily have my back any more than a random person on the street.

I feel like maybe RAAN (Red & Anarchist Action Network) may have picked up on some of these concepts, but that's the only encounter I've had with anarchist thoughts on the subject.

I guess my question could be expanded to include some things like:

Are there potential benefits to. . .  "constructing an identity" for people to belong to? (This sounds academic as fuck, but that's the best way I could think to put that.)

Are there potential benefits in the "image" of a street gang? The strong emphasis on solidarity and being able to kick ass if needed?

Could such an organizational structure be used effectively with certain tactics?

To pull up an example that people might be familiar with, "The Team" was/is a supposed group of wage slaves, identifiable only by a particular pin worn on their work clothes, who propagated an underground gift economy of goods smuggled and stolen from their employers. Loose organizational structure united by a common goal and identity, unquestioning solidarity toward other members based on recognizing their secret means of identification - kinda gang-like.

(I'm sure there are a lot more things to take into consideration but this is dragging way the fuck on already, so I'm gonna cut this off here.)

Comments

Is this Nachie speaking? It sounds like it is…

:P

---

"Street gangs" is not a real reference point. Please explain what you are referring to, preferably with actual experiences of your own. (A tip of the hat to a propaganda essay that made the rounds on anarchist media websites doesn't count. That's not any realer than "Warriors".)

Are we talking something like Mara Salvatrucha, or something else? (Fuck MS and any of their counterparts… for the record. Gives me the creeps just thinking about what would happen to me if I said that in a place where they existed.)

---

dot,

I have a complex about the fact that comments don't send email notifications like answers do. I always miss comments because I don't check the site very often and so I project that onto other people who use the site. :P

That this is an anonymous inquirer only makes it worse.

---

i hear you. i end up checking the site randomly to see if i've missed anything.

Answer 1

from what i know the closest thing that i have known about related reflections and practices to what you are refering to is the european individualist anarchist practice known as "illegalism" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilegalism).

The most famous practitioners of ilegalism were the notorious Bonnot Gang (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnot_Gang) who went on a bank robbery spree around all France. Illegalists adhered to what they called (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_reclamation) Individual reclamation which is about justifying stealing on personal dissobedience reasons of "spooks" in the Max Stirner sense like private proterty and markets.

Some illegalists went beyonf personal rebelion against the system and could also give to anarchist collectives and trade unions. Another tendency that appeared strongly in Spain, Argentina and Italy known as "expropriative anarchism" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expropriative_anarchism) justified robbery in order to finance revolutionary activities and included at some points notorious anarchists such as Buenaventura Durruti and Severino Di Giovanni. In contemporary insurrectionary anarchist circles in Italy and Greece Illegalism and Expropriative anarchism has been widely practiced and in Spain there is the well known case of Lucio Urtubia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucio_Urtubia) who forged currency and developed a wider illegalist operation alongside other people in order to finance anarchist and revolutionary activities.

Similar reasons and traits of these two things are definitely present in contemporary "apolitical" street gangs. Some gangs appear in part for collective self defense in a territory and end up becoming huge corporations for profit (the mara salvatrucha is an example of this). A lot could be developed on these lines i think.

Comments

there is a piece by aufheben on the LA riots that gets into this a bit.

edited to change from "answer" to comment. just links aren't useful as answers, and this isn't even a link.

---

aufheben are not anarchists.
not trying to be pedantic, just sayin'.

---

Our influences included the Italian autonomia movement of 1969-77, the situationists, and others who took Marx's work as a basic starting point and used it to develop the communist project beyond the anti-proletarian dogmatisms of Leninism (in all its varieties) and to reflect the current state of the class struggle. We also recognized the moment of truth in versions of class struggle anarchism, the German and Italian lefts and other tendencies.

---

i.e. close enough for me...

Answer 2

I define government as a group of people that hold the monopoly on force and violence in a given area. Violence+territory=government. therefore, gangs fit just perfectly in that definition and deserve the same treatment the police do.

Comments

this is not an answer to the question.

Answer 3

I would suggest various writings associated with Bash Back!, a now-defunct queer anarchist tendency that some identified as a gang, or as composed of many gangs.

If you take a good look at that body of work, you'll find a lot of debate and thought about the questions of identity, image, and organizational structure that you mentioned.

All of those questions are brought up in this: http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/10500
Also see: http://sketchythoughts.blogspot.com/2010/09/reflections-on-demise-of-bash-back.html

Not BB!, but also see Modesto Anarcho on forming crews.

Similar ideas have actually been circulating in anarchist writing in the past few years, I just can't think of other titles.

edit: I just realized that Call by the Invisible Committee talks about gang-style organization as well.

Answer 4

a gang is just a union that isn't legitimized by the state.  Anarchists tend to have a lot of analysis and criticism of unions and most of it should be applicable to street gangs as well.