Robert Thaxton

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Robert 'Los Ricos' Thaxton in 2001

Robert Thaxton (born December 31, 1959) is an anarchist writer and activist.

Born and raised in a small town – Pampa - in Texas, Thaxton constantly felt himself at odds with most of what he encountered in the attitudes of his Chicano mother's Catholic family, the violence and racism of his step-father and men in general. More at ease with his Latina aunts, who gathered most weekends at their mother's home, he looked towards women as mentors and role models rather than the men in his life.

His first experience with activism came early, while he attended St. Vincent dePaul Catholic grade school. During his fifth grade year, he and his fellow classmates became so unruly that the school was in danger of being closed. Rather than lose this prestigious institution, though, the Diocese offered an olive branch to the wild students, who subsequently demanded changes in the school's curriculum. Catechism classes were no longer taught under the new arrangement, nor were students required to attend morning Mass prior to attending classes.

The following year, the students were allowed to study as they saw fit in the afternoons, and were taught the basics (math, English, science, civics) in a slightly more structured manner in the mornings. The students thrived under the new, self-paced system and finished their required studies with six weeks to spare in the school year.

It was during the free study times that he began to look into the subjects that were merely catch phrases and sound bites in the media and to people who were ill-informed about the events of the time – the time being 1970-71.

Thaxton read about Native American traditions, as well as periods of history that fascinated him. With his curiosity piqued by both the vagueness of what he read in the school's scant library and the elusiveness in the discussions he had with the nuns, priests and teachers, Thaxton spent much time at the public library. He often encountered older kids there who were interested in the same subjects, which also lead to his meeting college students home on breaks. The discussions he had with the older students lead him to research labor history, which in turn lead him to read up on socialism, which then led him to the Communist Manifesto. Though enthusiastic about the concept of working class revolution, the idea of a dictatorship of anyone – proletariat, central committee, party chairman – was repulsive to him.

Further research into Native American traditions and histories both instilled a sense of pride in his native Mexica heritage and introduced him to anarchy as a concept for social organization. Reading about the social structure of Plains Indians – particularly the Comanches, who had inhabited the region surrounding Pampa – Thaxton developed a deep respect for the sophistication of Native Peoples and has never wavered in his association of nomadic, Native Peoples social structures with anarchist practices.

Thaxton was also fascinated with the antics of urban guerrilla revolutionary groups, mostly in the U.S. After graduating form high school and later dropping out of college, Thaxton briefly returned to Pampa, where he worked at a number of odd jobs, including a stint at local radio station KPDN – AM. Not content with small town life, he wandered to Dallas, Texas in search of comrades and ready employment.

A combination of on-again, off-again employment as a door-to-door canvasser for KNON-FM radio and his prior experience as a DJ at a commercial radio station eventually resulted in Thaxton's hiring as the Program Director for KNON.

Up until then a struggling, technical-difficulty plagued, non-commercial station, Thaxton was given the opportunity to give KNON a complete make-over, which resulted in KNON's growth from a low-powered station with a strong cult following to being voted Best Radio Station by the readers of the Dallas Observer for three consecutive years ('85-'87).

The station was presented with unforeseen problems when the ultra-wealthy, ultra-conservative First Baptist Church of Dallas challenged the station's broadcast license before the FCC. In the fallout of that challenge, KNON was forced to swap frequencies and broadcast equipment with the Baptists and Thaxton was shown the door.

He eventually relocated to Austin, where there was a large, active anarchist community. Together with his newly-found comrades, Thaxton published zines, helped organize demonstrations against the Gulf War of Bush I, and put together three anarchist gatherings - two in Austin and one in Houston, during the Republican National Convention there in '92. He also – co-incidentally enough – attended his first demo against the G-8 summit meeting in Houston, in '91.

It was these demonstrations that convinced Thaxton that such organizing was pointless. Thaxton began to travel around the country in '93 in search of inspiration. After an initial foray into Detroit, he settled into Portland, Oregon. There, he met people who would help him feel like it was possible to live according to his desires.

A brief (8 months) excursion to Hawai'i gave Thaxton the confidence needed to envision a break from social imperatives – the mediation of life through economics, for example. Upon his return to the mainland, he found that his friends from Portland had relocated to a piece of land surrounded by forests. He split his time between this self-styled “Land of the Lost,” and Portland, where his daughter lived with her mother.

Thaxton (who writes under the name Rob los Ricos) took a much needed break from the isolation of forest life in order to attend an anarchist conference June 16-17th at the University of Oregon, in Eugene, and to participate in the subsequent Reclaim the Streets action as part of an "International Day of Action Against Global Capitalism" to protest the policies of the G-8 summit held in Cologne, Germany on June 18th, '99.

One of 21 people arrested during the day-long melee with the Eugene police, Thaxton was convicted on September 3, 1999, of Assault II and Riot for throwing a large rock at a police officer. His plea of self-defense was rejected, and he was sentenced to seven years in prison. While there were protests in more than 140 cities around the world that day, Thaxton is said to have received the longest sentence of any participant. However, Thaxton is also one of the few convicted of intentionally assaulting a police officer. That protest was said to be an important precursor to the 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle, Washington, almost six months later.

During his imprisonment at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Oregon, he tangled with prison authorities, who alleged that he is involved with the eco-sabotage organization Earth Liberation Front. Thaxton is also notable as one of few publicly acknowledged anarchist people of color imprisoned for his violent activities in the high-profile 1990's Pacific Northwest anti-globalization movement. His case, actions and writings have been important in the movement's discussions of "non-violence" and prisoner support. His writings linking Native American and anarchist traditions have found a supportive, receptive audience in the Green Anarchist milieu.

Rob is the author of several zines, including Manufacturing Dissent and co-authored, along with fellow prisoner Jeff Luers, of Heartcheck. Over the seven years of his incarceration – which ended with his release from Oregon State Correctional Institution on June 29th, 2006 – he had articles, essays and rants published in numerous magazines and papers, including: Anarchy: a Journal of Desire Armed , Street Roots, AWOL, What If? A Journal of Radical Possibilities, and Green Anarchy as well as Green Anarchist (UK).