On Anarchism: Dispatches From the People's Republic of Vermont

David Van Deusen

Nov 2017 · Algora Publishing

About this ebook

The contemporary anarchist world, including the idea of secession as it flourishes in "Bernie Sanders' Vermont," is outlined in these collected writings of an AFL-CIO union officer, laborer, journalist and anarchist organizer. With a partial focus on the Green Mountain Anarchist Collective but applicable throughout the US, he describes political goals and specific events in the last few decades; central to the theme is the aim to expand venues for democratic decision making and socialism.

About the author

David Van Deusen marched in his first Black Bloc against Bill Clinton and the 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. He co-founded the Green Mountain Anarchist Collective in 2000.

Van Deusen is a former member of Anti-Racist Action and is a past District Vice President and Member-At-Large of the Vermont AFL-CIO. Dave served on the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs and is a past member of the United Auto Workers Local 1981, Teamsters Local 1L, United Electrical Workers Local 221.

He co-authored "The Black Bloc Papers" and "Neither Washington Nor Stowe." In addition, he was elected to two terms on his local Select Board (endorsed by the VT Progressive Party, VT Liberty Union Party & the AFL-CIO), three terms as First Constable, and as Moretown Chair of the (social-democratic) Vermont Progressive Party Caucus.

Van Deusen has traveled as far west as California, as far east as Budapest, Hungary, as far north as Quebec City, and as far south as Chiapas Mexico. He has labored as a construction worker, farmhand, bartender, archaeologist, freelance journalist, and as News Editor of Catamount Tavern News. He currently is a Senior Union Rep for the Vermont State Employees' Association (representing road crew workers), is a member of the Vermont Workers' Center.

Van Deusen has resided in New Orleans (birthplace of jazz), Jacksonville, Florida (birthplace of Lynyrd Skynyrd), West Nyack, New York and Seville, Spain. Now he lives with his family (wife Angela, daughter Freya, and son William) in rural Vermont and rides a union-made Harley Davidson motorcycle.