View source for Anarchy 84/Notes on poverty 3: Kropotkin House, Duluth

{{header
 | title      = [[../|ANARCHY 84 (Vol 8 No 2) FEBRUARY 1968]]<br>Notes on poverty 3: Kropotkin House, Duluth
 | author     = James W. Cain
 | section    =
 | previous   = [[../From articles on poverty|From articles on poverty]]
 | next       = [[../A change is gonna come|A change is gonna come]]
 | notes      = 
}}


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<font size="7">'''Notes on poverty'''</font>

{{p|48}}<font size="5">'''3: Kropotkin House, Duluth'''</font>

<font size="4">'''[[Author:James W. Cain|JAMES W. CAIN]]'''</font>


<div style="text-align:justify;">{{sc|I remember that monday night}} when first I stum&shy;bled up the grey, over&shy;sized steps of the old house. (Contro&shy;versy was fresh and flag&shy;rant: it was not long after we had distri&shy;buted over a thou&shy;sand copies of a broad&shy;side{{dash|entitled {{qq|Blast!}}}}through&shy;out the city of {{w|Duluth|Duluth,_Minnesota}} on {{w|May Day|International_Workers'_Day}} of last year; because of the confu&shy;sion and excite&shy;ment, I was invited into the Univer&shy;sity and several high schools to speak on Anar&shy;chism.) I had rented the house from Slum&shy;lord Over&shy;man without even seeing it. It was the cheap&shy;est ghetto-<wbr>dwel&shy;ling he had avail&shy;able. It was dirty, dis&shy;inte&shy;gra&shy;ting, Victorian, red-brown brick buil&shy;ding; it leaned unas&shy;sum&shy;ingly on another buil&shy;ding which was exactly like it (which in turn unas&shy;sum&shy;ingly leaned on another just like it: the three gave the impres&shy;sion of being one huge rock mound.)

{{p|49}}{{tab}}When I tried the key, it jammed in the lock and I cursed quite assum&shy;ingly. On the side&shy;walk below, a small child in a blue dress was prat&shy;tling in {{w|French-Canadian|Canadian_French}} and an old man with one leg (known locally as {{qq|the Polish Fascist}}) was surrounded by three barking, leaping dogs. Finally, I opened the door and bundled my few pieces of furniture and baggage into the house. The smell was pier&shy;cing and pungent: cheap paint, rotting wood, and broken toilet. I felt lonely, appre&shy;hen&shy;sive, tired, and stunned.

{{tab}}A weird, unver&shy;balized, and dis&shy;torted collage leaped through my mind: I thought of the {{w|Diggers|Diggers_(theater)}} in {{w|San Francisco|San_Francisco}} (I had been there in Febru&shy;ary when the police tried to destroy them); I thought of {{w|Dorothy Day|Dorothy_Day}}{{s}} Chrystie Street {{w|House of Hospi&shy;tal&shy;ity|House_of_hospitality}} in {{w|New York|New_York_City}} and her farm at {{w|Tivoli|Tivoli,_New_York}} (I had been there in the bitter weeks of early Janu&shy;ary and the Christ&shy;mas season); I thought of {{w|Emmaus House|David_Kirk_(activist)#Emmaus_House}} and {{w|Ammon Hennacy|Ammon_Hennacy}}{{s}} {{w|Joe Hill House|Joe_Hill_House}}; and I thought of a sug&shy;ges&shy;tion by {{w|Herbert Read|Herbert_Read}}: {{qq|The {{w|General Strike|General_strike}} of the future must be orga&shy;nized as a strike of the com&shy;mun&shy;ity against the State. The result of that strike will not be in doubt. The State is just as vulner&shy;able as a human being, and can be killed by the cutting of a single artery. But the event must be catas&shy;tro&shy;phic. Tyrrany, whether of a person or a class, can never be des&shy;troyed in any other way.}} I sighed. I opened a window and, without further ritual, named the house: [[Author:Peter Kropotkin|Peter Kropot&shy;kin]] House of Hospi&shy;tal&shy;ity.

{{tab}}Since the early part of April, when I had returned to Duluth from the West, I had dis&shy;cussed with friends and acti&shy;vists the idea of someone opening a house in {{w|Central Hill&shy;side|Central_Hillside}}, the ghetto of Duluth, and using it as a place to inject a liber&shy;tar&shy;ian per&shy;spec&shy;tive of social prob&shy;lems into the area (I was parti&shy;cu&shy;larly enthu&shy;sias&shy;tic about Herbert Read{{s}} con&shy;cep&shy;tion). Now, it seemed, my desire was to be actua&shy;lized (because I had sud&shy;denly decided to actua&shy;lize it myself). I had taken a job as a laun&shy;dry&shy;man at a local hos&shy;pital in order to provide a finan&shy;cial basis; and, without further promise of aid or assis&shy;tance, pro&shy;ceeded to open the house.

{{tab}}During the first week of my resi&shy;dency, the nights were spent in cleaning the house. Gary Moland, a paci&shy;fist friend, swept and mopped the floors. Kelene Koval (an Anar&shy;chist), Bob Pokor&shy;ney, and Jim McCaf&shy;frey exuber&shy;antly scrubbed the walls and cei&shy;lings. Neigh&shy;bours, timidly at first, but with growing confi&shy;dence, pro&shy;vided mutual aid (even {{qq|the Polish Fascist}}). Propa&shy;ganda was not needed; their curi&shy;osity (and their lone&shy;li&shy;ness) brought them. A great crowd of stu&shy;dents (most of whom had heard me speak on Anar&shy;chism at their res&shy;pec&shy;tive schools) came, bare&shy;footed and wearing cut-<wbr>offs, eager to talk and work but mostly to talk (about God mostly and the State{{dash}}and some&shy;times Capi&shy;tal&shy;ism). I pro&shy;voked one young fellow into reading Kropot&shy;kin{{s}} {{l|''Memoirs of a Revo&shy;lu&shy;tion&shy;ist''|https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-memoirs-of-a-revolutionist}}; and a Univer&shy;sity student read {{w|Maximoff|Gregori_Maximoff}}{{s}} {{popup|anthology|The Political Philosophy of Bakunin: Scientific Anarchism}} of {{w|Bakunin|Mikhail_Bakunin}}{{s}} writings.

{{tab}}Most of the old people who came from the neigh&shy;bour&shy;hood to work at the house were ex&shy;treme&shy;ly aggra&shy;vated by the young people. One wrin&shy;kled woman, an alco&shy;holic, told me that she was afraid of a {{w|Red Guard|Red_Guards_(China)}} riot. I told her that she had no reason to worry: the stu&shy;dents are quite conven&shy;tion&shy;al and mostly middle-<wbr>class; they would be more {{p|50}}likely to riot for {{w|Hubert Humphrey|Hubert_Humphrey}} than for {{w|Mao|Mao_Zedong}}. In either case (said I) it would be defi&shy;nitely reac&shy;tion&shy;ary. (I was perhaps too brutal; many young minds were just awa&shy;kening to a com&shy;mit&shy;ment against segre&shy;gation and the {{w|war|Vietnam_War}} in {{w|Viet&shy;nam|Vietnam}}.) The poor woman said she couldn{{t}} under&shy;stand and deci&shy;ded to go out and get some&shy;thing to drink.

{{tab}}By this time, about half a dozen people were staying more or less regu&shy;larly at the house. Someone had given us a bed; someone had given us a sleeping-<wbr>cot. We began to make prepar&shy;ations for a series of {{qq|gatherings}} in Cascade Park (on the edge of the ghetto).

{{tab}}I do not wish to give the impres&shy;sion that life at Kropot&shy;kin House was all gentle, beau&shy;ti&shy;ful, sensi&shy;tive, serene, and un&shy;ruf&shy;fled. I had to stay up all night once with a raving {{qq|druggie}} who couldn{{t}} find enough money to pay for his parti&shy;cu&shy;lar escape. All that this friend&shy;less creature of para&shy;noia wanted was to find someone who would talk with him. (I actu&shy;ally fell asleep on my feet in the laundry the next day; but, ever since, I have had little pa&shy;tience for crude {{w|Calvin&shy;ists|Calvinism}} who call for more laws and stric&shy;ter punish&shy;ment against drug-<wbr>addicts.)

{{tab}}About a month after the house was opened, Kai Johnson, an Anarchist and pacifist, brought some paints and pro&shy;ceeded to paint murals on the walls of two of the up&shy;stairs rooms. I painted the door of my room black with bril&shy;liant red panels. The {{w|Bene&shy;dic&shy;tine Sisters|Order_of_Saint_Benedict}} of the Sacred Heart (a local convent in the ghetto) disco&shy;vered the house and, even though they did not approve of me, were quite im&shy;pressed with the idea and donated two desks, seven chairs, an old French writing-<wbr>table and a {{l|Bible|https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible}}. Nina Garber, an Anar&shy;chist, baked bread for the always hungry people of the house; and, one night, Esme Evans, a folk-<wbr>singer of some renown in the {{w|Upper Midwest|Upper_Midwest}}, arrived with a massive meal of {{w|beef stroganoff|Beef_Stroganoff}}, salads, and wine (by this time, and until its closing, there were usually over fifty people in the house every night). Many of us became sick from the good food.

{{tab}}A few days after our {{qq|gather&shy;ing}} on July 19 in Cascade Park in honour of the Anar&shy;chists in {{w|Spanish|Francoist_Spain}} prisons, a {{w|Mexican-<wbr>Ameri&shy;can|Mexican_Americans}} homo&shy;sexual, a {{w|manic-<wbr>depres&shy;sive|Bipolar_disorder}} of sorts, decided he wanted to commit suicide in the house; al&shy;though the attempt failed, there was still a con&shy;sider&shy;able amount of chaos, con&shy;fusion, and angry people.

{{tab}}Some of the teenage boys in the neigh&shy;bour&shy;hood saw Kai pain&shy;ting one day and they pa&shy;tient&shy;ly waited until no one was in the house and then climbed through the second-<wbr>storey window (even though the door was always open, they always showed a prefer&shy;ence to enter through the second-<wbr>storey window) and painted a hideous mural that covered all of the walls and ceiling of the {{qq|Mrs. Murphy}}. They were quite proud of their work. Their own parents objec&shy;ted. The boys were confi&shy;dent; they merely quoted one of the regu&shy;la&shy;tions of Kropot&shy;kin House: {{qq|This house is dedi&shy;cated to pro&shy;vi&shy;ding the pos&shy;sibi&shy;lity for anyone to ini&shy;tiate creative activity.}}

{{tab}}One night, a pros&shy;ti&shy;tute was beaten bloody and thrown out of a moving car in front of the house. She refused to go to the hos&shy;pital; she wanted to stay at the house until her wounds were healed: she stayed at the house until her wounds were healed: she stayed until the house {{p|51}}was closed. Several people of the house were con&shy;tinu&shy;ally de&shy;noun&shy;cing her as a thief; she would quietly respond: {{qq|It will all come out in the end.}} Last week, the police found her bloodied body. She had been mauled and aban&shy;doned in a gutter again.

{{tab}}The {{w|hippies|Hippie}} came in pro&shy;ces&shy;sion one evening and pre&shy;sented me with great bunches of red roses and lilacs and named me: {{qq|the Digger}}.

{{tab}}When I finally lost my job (I was most impru&shy;dent: they caught me dis&shy;semi&shy;nating infor&shy;mation about worker{{s|r}} control and the war in Viet&shy;nam) and we needed money for the house, we sent an appeal for support to over 500 people (human&shy;ists, as it were) in the area. I quote from it to give some idea of the simple and basic prin&shy;ci&shy;ples we tried to acti&shy;vate:

{{tab}}{{qq|Central Hill&shy;side, Duluth, Minne&shy;sota, is a com&shy;muni&shy;ty facing enor&shy;mous human prob&shy;lems: poor housing and high rents, social and emo&shy;tion&shy;al iso&shy;lation and anguish, insuf&shy;fi&shy;cient income and infla&shy;ting prices, deteri&shy;ora&shy;ting family life, vio&shy;lence, lone&shy;li&shy;ness, frag&shy;mented edu&shy;ca&shy;tional and cultural at&shy;tempts, and racial in&shy;jus&shy;tice. Central Hill&shy;side is a symbol of urban man{{s}} suf&shy;fer&shy;ing and des&shy;pera&shy;tion{{dash}}and of his hopes.|l}}

{{tab}}{{qq|Now the ter&shy;rify&shy;ing paradox of the whole thing is this: Central Hill&shy;side, and every person in it, is a living con&shy;dem&shy;na&shy;tion and exhor&shy;ta&shy;tion of the city of Duluth. For it is here, in Central Hill&shy;side, that we find a new situ&shy;ation of urban man, with its envi&shy;ron&shy;ment of iso&shy;la&shy;tion and dehu&shy;mani&shy;za&shy;tion, which is begin&shy;ning to shape the desire for new struc&shy;tures, new pat&shy;terns, new forms of renewed and acti&shy;vized life. There is talk now of {{q|turning Central Hill&shy;side inside out}}, of a burst of new energy and life as the commu&shy;nity dis&shy;co&shy;vers ideas and forms that are rele&shy;vant to the vast shapes of need and strength, of hope and despair. Both the world of Central Hill&shy;side and the power of love and joy are forcing the city of Duluth to face the need for radical and creative renewal and refor&shy;ma&shy;tion. Peter Kropot&shy;kin House of Hos&shy;pita&shy;lity is a sign of new shapes and values in the commu&shy;nity of Central Hill&shy;side and in the city of Duluth.|l}}

{{tab}}{{qq|Peter Kropot&shy;kin House of Hos&shy;pita&shy;lity is a gather&shy;ing place for those people who are con&shy;cerned about the prob&shy;lems of Central Hill&shy;side and desire to contri&shy;bute to its social and emo&shy;tion&shy;al growth and refor&shy;ma&shy;tion. The house is named in honour of Peter Kropot&shy;kin, the great writer and acti&shy;vist of the anar&shy;chist move&shy;ment, who taught the neces&shy;sity of per&shy;sona&shy;lized and func&shy;tion&shy;al commu&shy;ni&shy;ties as means of enjoy&shy;ing life and resis&shy;ting blatant tota&shy;litari&shy;anism (as in {{w|China|China}} and the {{w|Soviet Union|Soviet_Union}}) and creep&shy;ing cen&shy;trali&shy;za&shy;tion (as in<!-- 'is' in original --> {{w|England|England}} and the {{w|United States|United_States}}). We are a group of neigh&shy;bours and friends who seek to be avail&shy;able in their commu&shy;nity day after day, day in and day out. Our gather&shy;ing of friends and neigh&shy;bours is flex&shy;ible, plura&shy;lis&shy;tic, ad hoc, and dis&shy;pen&shy;sable. We do not desire to estab&shy;lish the same old forma&shy;lized struc&shy;tures and pro&shy;grammes. We do not re&shy;ceive money from any insti&shy;tu&shy;tion. We do not re&shy;ceive money from the Govern&shy;ment. We do not re&shy;ceive money from any cor&shy;pora&shy;tion. We believe that the people of Central Hill&shy;side must solve their own prob&shy;lems through direct action.|l}}

{{tab}}{{qq|Peter Kropot&shy;kin House of Hos&shy;pita&shy;lity is always open and ready to welcome anyone. It is a place where indi&shy;vidu&shy;als and fami&shy;lies in need {{p|52}}come to stay for a while; it is a place where persons inter&shy;ested in this kind of action may come and see and talk for a time. Here, the muti&shy;lated, the addic&shy;ted, and the healthy, the afflu&shy;ent and the poor, black, red, and white, un&shy;poli&shy;ti&shy;cal and radical come to&shy;gether and realize that they must link them&shy;selves in mutual aid, and to&shy;gether in friend&shy;ship seek out a pattern of living which is more just, more cre&shy;ative, more per&shy;sona&shy;lis&shy;tic, and more rea&shy;lis&shy;tic for our commu&shy;nity of Central Hill&shy;side in the modern world.}}

{{tab}}One young girl (who, like other black people I have met in the ghetto, was pas&shy;sion&shy;ately com&shy;mit&shy;ted to working for human rights and equally con&shy;vinced that Ameri&shy;can troops should be with&shy;drawn from Vietnam imme&shy;di&shy;ately) spent two hours one after&shy;noon trying to per&shy;suade me that I should orga&shy;nize riots in Duluth during the summer; she did not succeed.

{{tab}}In the latter part of July and the begin&shy;ning of August, I was in {{w|Canada|Canada}} and {{w|Min&shy;nea&shy;polis|Minneapolis}} to fulfil several spea&shy;king engage&shy;ments. When I got back to Duluth, there were rumours of im&shy;pen&shy;ding riots. (Duluth is the only city in the {{w|Midwest|Midwestern_United_States}} that allows {{qq|the {{w|Job Corps|Job_Corps}} boys}}{{dash|who mostly repre&shy;sent the minor&shy;ity races}}to enter and walk upon its sacred ground.) The {{w|SNCC|Student_Nonviolent_Coordinating_Committee}} agi&shy;ta&shy;tors were agi&shy;ta&shy;ting the riots, said the rumours. {{popup|Bilge water|Nonsense}}, said I. A meeting was called of all {{qq|Humani&shy;tari&shy;ans}} to discuss what should be done. At the meeting, I ex&shy;pressed doubt that there had been any agi&shy;ta&shy;tion (not that I wouldn{{t}} put it past SNCC, which has a rather per&shy;verse view of revo&shy;lu&shy;tion: there just weren{{t}} any SNCC agi&shy;ta&shy;tors; and the black people in the ghetto, al&shy;though angry, were orga&shy;ni&shy;zing for pos&shy;sibi&shy;lity and not futi&shy;lity. The Revo&shy;lu&shy;tion is the Revo&shy;lu&shy;tion: It is the at&shy;tempt to use mutual aid insti&shy;tu&shy;tions, labour syn&shy;di&shy;cates, and revo&shy;lu&shy;tion&shy;ary co-<wbr>opera&shy;tives to create a new society while de&shy;stroy&shy;ing the old; it is not an ado&shy;les&shy;cent spree for loot and booty that places the res&shy;pon&shy;sibi&shy;lity for the reor&shy;gani&shy;za&shy;tion of society on the greasy finger-<wbr>tips of the leaders{{dash}}whether they be poli&shy;ti&shy;cians of {{qq|{{w|black power|Black_Power}}}} or poli&shy;ti&shy;cians of {{qq|{{w|great society|Great_Society}}}}). They were a little late (said I) in worry&shy;ing about the black people now; they could have done some&shy;thing con&shy;struc&shy;tive and fra&shy;ter&shy;nal about the {{w|segre&shy;ga&shy;tion|Racial_segregation_in_the_United_States}} situ&shy;ation before the summer, but now{{dash|basically}}they were only worried about the threat to their {{qq|private property}}. I said that it would be bar&shy;bar&shy;ous to call out the mili&shy;tary. Someone de&shy;nounced me as an ob&shy;struc&shy;tion&shy;ist. She wanted a {{qq|firm}} policy. I have since won&shy;dered whether she was disap&shy;poin&shy;ted: there weren{{t}} any riots in Duluth during the summer. Later, however, there was a new rumour: {{qq|the Anar&shy;chists were the ones who had agi&shy;ta&shy;ted for a riot}}.

{{tab}}Kropot&shy;kin House was closed in Sep&shy;tem&shy;ber. We had gone into a con&shy;sider&shy;able amount of debt (our appeal failed: the {{w|Chamber of Com&shy;merce|Chamber_of_commerce}} had for&shy;mally and unin&shy;vi&shy;tedly opposed us; we were not worthy of aid), we had no support (moral or other&shy;wise) from other Anar&shy;chists in America, and there were dif&shy;ficul&shy;ties (sani&shy;ta&shy;tion, sedi&shy;tion, etc.) with the Depart&shy;ment of Water, Gas, and Sewage Treat&shy;ment{{dash}}and other govern&shy;mental bureaus. Our accom&shy;plish&shy;ments are rather intan&shy;gible (all that I could defi&shy;nite&shy;ly des&shy;cribe would be some small assis&shy;tance in the cam&shy;paign {{p|53}}of the resi&shy;dents of the ghetto to resist City Hall by buil&shy;ding an illegal play&shy;ground for their chil&shy;dren). Our fail&shy;ures are many: lack of under&shy;stan&shy;ding, lack of soli&shy;dar&shy;ity, lack of propa&shy;ganda (there are still a few people that refer to Kropot&shy;kin House as {{qq|the Com&shy;mu&shy;nist Whore&shy;house}}), lack of endur&shy;ance, etc., etc. I am con&shy;vinced, however, that there is a defi&shy;nite need and a neces&shy;sity for Anar&shy;chists in America to deve&shy;lop similar or con&shy;tras&shy;ting (and, hope&shy;fully, better orga&shy;nized and more cohe&shy;sive) {{qq|pro&shy;grammes of thought&shy;ful action}} ({{w|rent strikes|Rent_strike}}, etc.) in the ghetto and {{popup|twi&shy;light areas|areas of urban decay}} of this conti&shy;nent (espe&shy;cial&shy;ly making use of the com&shy;muni&shy;ty-<wbr>con&shy;cepts of Kropot&shy;kin, {{w|Mala&shy;testa|Errico_Malatesta}}, and [[Author:Alexander Berkman|Alex&shy;ander Berkman]]); these seeds of com&shy;mu&shy;nity could act as a means of provi&shy;ding hope and presen&shy;ting the pos&shy;sibi&shy;lity of direct action to {{qq|the people of anguish}}. They could also present the pos&shy;sibi&shy;lity of a sub&shy;stan&shy;tial, posi&shy;tive alter&shy;na&shy;tive (Anar&shy;chism) to the horrors of Capi&shy;tal&shy;ism and the ponder&shy;ous, un&shy;work&shy;able bureau&shy;cracy of {{qq|the Great Society}} (i.e., the Government). It is Capi&shy;tal&shy;ism and the State that vic&shy;ti&shy;mize the mili&shy;tant and awa&shy;ken&shy;ing under&shy;classes in Ameri&shy;can life today{{dash}}and they know it.
</div></div>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Notes on poverty 3 : kropotkin house duluth}}
[[Category:Housing]]
[[Category:Wealth and poverty]]
[[Category:Articles]]