Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

Thursday

Daniel McCarthy

The Democrats should investigate themselves for insurrection

For nearly a month last summer a violent insurrection claimed control of Capitol Hill — in Seattle, that is, not Washington DC. The insurrectionists were leftists who proclaimed the six or so city blocks under their power to be a new state-within-a-state, the ‘Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone’, or CHAZ. Multiple shootings, murders and acts of arson took place before police finally restored legal authority on July 1. This insurrection, and the many other lethal incursions against the rule of law that took place last summer, have not occasioned much soul-searching or anger from progressives and liberals in the commentariat. The contrast with their fury over the riot at the US Capitol on January 6 of this year could not be more striking.

insurrection

Tuesday

Christopher Sandford

The talentless Mr Inslee

SeattleWhen the time comes to consider the question of America’s worst governors, it seems we’re somewhat spoilt for choice. From the swivel-eyed Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan to New York’s ubiquitous Andrew Cuomo and his never-ending victory lap for having overseen just 33,000 deaths — a reported 6,692 of them in his state’s nursing homes — media posturing would seem to be the rule, and sustained periods of selfless public duty the exception. But for sheer myopic self-regard, it would be hard to top 69-year-old Jay Inslee, the Democratic governor of Washington since 2013, who barring a political earthquake is almost certain to be reelected in next month’s election.

inslee

Wednesday

Will Lloyd

Silence isn’t violence

In the evenings, when I want to relax, I watch a Russian named Max build a log cabin. Max is, I suppose, a YouTuber. The log cabin is found on the remote shores of Lake Ladoga, the largest freshwater lake in Europe. The lake was created 40,000 years ago, when a meteorite made landfall between what is now St Petersburg and the Finnish border. Max is a lawyer but his videos are about bushcraft. Years ago he bought a parcel of land near the lake and became a slavic Robinson Crusoe. His dispatches have names like 21 Days Alone in The Northern Wilderness and Two Chainsaw Secrets and Bear-Proofing My Log Cabin. I did not seek Max out. I left YouTube playing and returned to find him on screen, calmly narrating the day he built an overflow valve for his dam.

utopia

Tuesday

Godfrey Elfwick

Escape from CHAZ

Portland, OregonWhen I heard about the murder of George Floyd, I was angry. I raged at the sky for seven days and seven nights, demanding it rain down rocks of burning fury upon the Minneapolis Police Department. As I watched the news and saw rioters had set buildings alight, I felt in a roundabout way that my prayers had been answered. But this vigilante vengeance, as justified as it was, was not enough. Nothing could ever be the same again. Things have to change* (*at this point, I would like you to imagine me saying ‘Things have to change’ with a fiercely sincere expression on my face while being filmed in black and white against an emotive soundtrack for extra significance).For this reason, the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone (or CHAZ) in Seattle has been established.

chaz

Thursday

Christopher Sandford

What’s it like in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone?

SeattleAh, Seattle, that environmentally obsessed city where all is decorous, the sidewalks immaculately swept, the parks rigorously trimmed, proverbial for its snow-capped mountains and sparkling lakes, and now, too, for its riotous Capitol Hill residential neighborhood where free spirits roam with their feral dogs and semi-automatic weapons. Their little community survives — even flourishes — by handing out free stuff like gas masks from the back of trucks, eating lentils cooked over an open fire, and sustaining each other’s morale by peak-decibel showings of the racially-themed movie 13th. Apparently they’re in it for the long haul.

capitol hill autonomous zone
anarchy
Sam Leith

How do you enforce anarchy?

I had an argument once, in a pub, with an anarchosyndicalist. We’d both been on the same protest march so we started from a position of, at least in some respects, presumed sympathy. I asked him how on earth a large society could hope to run itself without rules or institutions at all (this may have been a slight under-reading of this distinguished political philosophy, but he didn’t correct me). Anyway, he got jolly cross and did a lot of shouting about how the post office was anarchosyndicalism in action. But what about pedophiles, I yelled (we’d had a lot of cider). How does the post office deal with them, eh? There was some answer to do with communal social exclusion as an alternative to the industro-carceral complex.

CHAZ capitol hill autonomous zone
Ben Sixsmith

In defense of CHAZ

It is easy to laugh at the young people who have built the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in Seattle. A group of anarchists and leftists collected in Capitol Hill, known for its hipster and LGBT scenes, they have barricaded themselves into a small area and established an anarchic intentional community, modeled, perhaps, on the work of Hakim Bey — known for his endorsement of ‘temporary autonomous zones’. Bey is also known because of unfortunate links to the pederast group the North American Man/Boy Love Association, but let’s leave that aside for now.