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Doing it Yourself: Direct-action Currents in Contemporary Radical Activism 21challenge, of course, there lurks the assumption that life need notbe this way, that it has not always been this way. Thus John Zerzanargues that work as we know it is a product of civilization, animposition upon a non-Hobbesian prehistory ‘characterized moreby intelligence, egalitarianism and sharing, leisure time, a great dealof sexual equality, robusticity and health, with no evidence at all oforganized violence’ (Zerzan 2002: 49). 2Anarcho-primitivist influences figure prominently within the dropoutculture that is burgeoning all over the world, but is particularlystrong in inner-city areas of the United States. In an interview for theAffinity Project, Dave Battistuzzi, an organizer for the NortheasternFederation of Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC), notes that there are ‘twoanarchisms’ at work in cities like Baltimore, where the flight to thesuburbs has left behind deeply impoverished, primarily Black neighbourhoodswith low housing costs and many abandoned buildings.Since the 1980s, these areas have been attractive to White-punk-DIYsquatters whom Battistuzzi identifies with what Murray Bookchin(1995) has called ‘lifestyle anarchism’—that is, with a ‘middle-class,escapist, feel-good’ sub-culture (Battistuzzi 2003). They often have nostrong links to the surrounding community, and are therefore seenmore as first-stage gentrifiers than as a potential source of progressivealliances. In recent years, however, a new kind of drop-out politics hasemerged, which is driven more by necessity than choice, and is tryingto reach out across the boundaries created by race, class and anarchistsubcultures. Rather than simply capitalizing upon impoverishmentand strife to acquire cheap or free housing, these squatters contributeto their neighbourhoods by providing much-needed communityservices. Eleanor, who calls herself ‘a White anarchist kid’, has livedin a number of squats in inner-city Black areas of Philadelphia. Shehas been involved in creating community gardens, bike workshops,free art classes and other initiatives, and has found the communitiesin which she has lived to be ‘positive and supportive’ (Eleanor 2003).Her experience offers a way out of the stark distinction Bookchinmakes between social anarchism and lifestyle anarchism, by showinghow living an alternative lifestyle can be combined with other tacticsthat are more obviously ‘political’ in nature. 3THE INCREDIBLE LIGHTNESS OF CULTURAL SUBVERSIONThe past few years have seen a resurgence of another situationisttechnique: détournement, which the SI defined as the integration of