The Value of The Amateur:
Ancient ages ago there was a campaign against Dimitri Rousoupoulos of 'Black Rose Books' (who at that time also published 'Our Generation'). The accusation was that he was basically a "parasite" who "lived off the movement". Personal differences in Rousopoulos' circle in Montreal gave this accusation credibility. This dispute is long gone, but I find it interesting that nobody raises the same accusation today against some people who OBVIUOSLY "live off the movement" such as "Chucky-Poo" of Infoshop or "Crimeth(INC-TM) who have found a way to extract money from the gullible and avoid work. Both these people and others had personal connections to some of those in the USA who were Dimitri's greatest detractors. There were others such as Jason McQuinn who probably didn't live as a parasite off of their anarchist efforts but who OBVIOUSLY had an independent source of income that allowed them to publish a glossy magazine that would always lose money. Anarchy Magazine could even survive turning the treasury over to a drug addict who robbed them and keep on publishing as if nothing had happened. The NOTHING is what McQuinn wanted to convey as he covered his ass across a continent without ever sinking to rationality and common sense in saying that criminal behavior is wrong- except in his privileged case. God, these people make me sick to my stomach.
But to return to the "value of the Amateur". There is an argument to be made on anarchist principles-ie those principles that "post-leftists" borrow from while denigrating as "obsolete"- that an anarchist propaganda effort should be susceptible of immediate reproduction by those who agree with it. Unlike the glossy magazine of 'Anarchy'. Unlike the complex website of 'Infoshop'. May I say that the latter two are "money-making enterprises" while publications such as ATN which can be reproduced by anybody with a printer are "anarchistic" in a way that the arrogance of "post leftist commercialism" could never be.