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Thank you Kassimo and Gargareum.
Kassimo, may I ask if you are male or female?
Abortion:
The decision to terminate a pregnancy is the responsibility of the expectant mother and the doctor(s) who would be directly responsible for carrying it out. I oppose governmental and social regulation of such decisions one way or another.
Ending a pregnancy is a fundamentally stressful and emotionally fraught experience. It’s not the kind of thing people do for kicks. Doctors don’t want to perform abortions on viable fetuses. Mothers don’t want to experience a process that ranges from a miscarriage to a stillbirth in terms of trauma. Everybody would much rather act proactively to prevent unwanted pregnancies than act reactively to end them once they’ve started.
But sometimes circumstances get in the way. Those of us who want to see less abortions happen should work on proactively fixing the circumstances that force people to get them, rather than punishing people after the fact.
If people have easy access to all the less invasive forms of birth control and education on how to use them correctly, they will use them, avoid unwanted pregnancies, and not need abortions.
The threat of punishment only serves to add more stress and suffering into already stressful situations, and fails to adequately deter anything (this theme will return).
Why I’m a socialist:
The definition of socialism is an economic arrangement where the “means of production” (that is, capital: tools, natural resources and infrastructure) are “socially-owned”.
Social ownership means that those who depend on a thing have at least some share in the ownership of that thing.
Social ownership is related to several similar but distinct concepts:
“Worker ownership” means that the people who work at a business own the business, so ultimately they decide for themselves what duties they perform, rather than depending on a manager or boss. It’s a form of self-employment that involves cooperating.
“Consumer ownership” means that a business’ customers get to decide what goods and services get produced, rather than depending on producers (workers or their bosses) to make the right decision.
I am in favor of worker ownership because I value my own autonomy and want to control my own work life. I’m already self-employed but the sole-proprietor life is lonely. I’d much rather work in, say, a cooperative, so that I can work with others while also still being self-employed.
I’m in favor of consumer ownership because it provides the most direct way for communities to hold companies accountable for quality control, health & safety, and other externalities. If I’m going to patronize a company, I want to know that my money is funding sustainable and ethical practices. And I don’t just want to take the company at their word. And I also don’t want to have to rely on the government to step in on my behalf. If you want something done right, you need to do it yourself.
It’s often the case that workers and consumers have interests that oppose one another. To solve this, mixed models of worker and consumer co-ownership do exist, and I’m in favor of those too, obviously.
I am, however, *against* the most well-known style of social ownership, which is “government ownership.”
Because again, if you want something done right you need to do it yourself.
The government claims to “represent” what people want, but that is transparently not how it works in practice. Who is the government to you and me? The government is a small number of strangers who meet in a big room and sit around writing the rules for who the police do and do not harass.
I have personal hands-on experience working with a legislature to get a popular education law passed and then watching as their human foibles, mismanagement, and general incompetence sent the whole thing crashing down, hurting a bunch of children.
Our “representatives” only have to care about us once every couple of years when they’re up for re-election. And even then they only need to get us to check a box on a piece of paper. They aren’t concerned with our actual consent.
It’s not even their fault:
It is an impossible task to stand for somebody you don’t even know.
So, in short, I don’t trust the government to manage the entire economy. That would be a disaster.
It needs to be under the control of a greater number of people, but that control needs to be direct, and non-mediated.
(I’ll answer questions 3 and 4 a bit later. To be continued)
Luckynia, Kassimo, Libertarian socialist sol, Patek phillippe, and 3 othersPatek philipe, Mandimbisoa, and Gargareum
Ok just a quickie swap of nations
Stroznia they are some quite reasonable reasons if I do say so myself
After some delay, I believe we should finalise the formation of our first Regional Council. The candidates are as follows:
Interior Committee [appearances]: Libertarian Australia
Defence Committee [borders]: World Anarchic Union
Communications Committee: Libertensi and Gargareum
International Committee [embassies]: Stroznia
There can be up to three people on each committee. Since there are no more than two candidates for any committee, it will be simply a confirmation vote for each.
For each candidate please vote either YES or NO, on this message board, to approve or disapprove respectively.
Voting will last for two days. If at least two-thirds (2/3) of votes are cast YES, then the candidate will be approved to the committee.
You can read the current outline of our regional structure here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GADiZgP7VavZFKZ2GIyXZAAUc9Ov29qZ7tr8fNBREMM/edit
My votes:
Interior Committee:
Libertarian Australia - YES
Defence Committee:
World Anarchic Union - YES
Communications Committee:
Libertensi - YES
Gargareum - YES
International Committee:
Stroznia - YES
Stroznia, World Anarchic Union, and Libertensi
My votes:
Interior Committee:
Libertarian Australia - YES
Defence Committee:
World Anarchic Union - YES
Communications Committee:
Libertensi - YES
Gargareum - YES
International Committee:
Stroznia - YES
Stroznia, World Anarchic Union, and Libertensi
My votes:
Interior Committee
Libertarian Australia - Yes
Defence Committee:
World Anarchic Union - Yes
Communications Committee:
Libertensi - Yes
Garageum - Yes
International Committee:
Stroznia - Yes
Libertarian Australia for Interior - Yes
World Anarchic Union for Defense - Yes
Libertensi and Gargareum for Communications, Yes and Yes
Stroznia for international, Yes
Interior Committee: Libertarian Australia - Yes
Defence Committee: World Anarchic Union - Yes
Communications Committee: Libertensi - Yes, Gargareum - Yes
International Committee: Stroznia - Yes
How many feminists do you personally know?
Many of the teachers at my school, many girls at my school, the odd absolute simp who hates his own sex. Overall its quite a few.
Why is that?
World Anarchic Union get prepared for the first real test of your new powers lol
After two days the vote is closed. All candidates have been confirmed to the Regional Council, and will now take up their positions. Best wishes :)
Interior Committee:
Libertarian Australia - 5 YES, 0 NO
Defence Committee:
World Anarchic Union - 5 YES, 0 NO
Communications Committee:
Libertensi - 5 YES, 0 NO
Gargareum - 5 YES, 0 NO
International Committee:
Stroznia - 5 YES, 0 NO
Love and marriage:
Love is beautiful. I define love as the choice to view something or someone as basically good, intrinsically valuable. To want to play and engage with it, and wish for it to persist and flourish (be safe, happy, healthy, etc.)
To me, an anarchist is somebody who doesn’t settle for anything less than love in life.
Love is what we feel when we do things playfully and voluntarily (as opposed to doing things because of obligation, fear, craving for an extrinsic reward, e.g. work).
Love is what we feel when we engage in friendship - choosing to spend time and play with each other because we like each other for who we are.
I believe that friendship is the base out of which all other relationships grow.
Friendships are customized by adding on any activities both people wholeheartedly consent to,
these activities run the full gamut from bowling night, to running a plumbing shop, to romance and sex, limited only by the mutual interests of the people involved.
When either person stops being interested in an activity, that activity can be retired as graciously and playfully as it was adopted, without harming the friendship. Friendships can stay intact forever, resilient to —even made vital by— constant change; when they do, that is lifelong love.
Marriage can either be beautiful or a miserably stifling spook, depending on the spirit in which two people enter into it.
If by “marriage” we’re simply talking about a big party that two (or more) individuals are throwing in order to celebrate and promote their lifelong friendship, that’s pretty dope.
But if we’re talking about marriage as some kind of state-mediated, legally-binding contract that exists to codify and limit individuals’ freedom to do as they please - that actually ruins love by turning it into something involuntary, something backed by fear.
Individuals should be able to say “yes” and “no” to doing any activity with each other whenever we please. There should not be limitations placed on what consensual things we can do with each other; it shouldn’t matter what our sexes are, whether we want one partner at a time or multiple partners at a time, whether we made different choices in the past, etc.
In reality, the only limiting factors are the content of our own desires and our ability to act on them.
Beyond this, we shouldn’t limit ourselves in our minds, and we certainly shouldn’t let other people (states, bullies, busybodies) attempt to place limits on us that we don’t want. If they do, we’ll buck their expectations and defy their wishes.
Drug use and the law:
Drugs are medicine and I believe they should be treated as such. I want them decriminalized so that people can use them in therapeutic ways with the guidance of experienced healers, therapists, doctors, etc.
Addiction is a serious problem. However, addiction isn’t a phenomenon that’s unique to illegal drugs. People get addicted to legal drugs (over the counter and prescription), and people get addicted to sex, food, music, video games, shopping, relationships, gambling, etc. I want to stop addiction but it needs to be tackled in a more radical way than simply getting rid of some drugs.
According to experts on addiction and recovery like Gabor Mate, the reason that people become addicted to things is that they are missing something vital in their lives. There is a hole in a person’s heart where some value ought to be, and they fill it with the similar, but inferior, value provided by the object of addiction.
For example, opiates like heroin or morphine closely resemble our bodies’ natural painkillers, the endorphins (which are released during pleasurable activities like play, exercise, sex, etc). If a person isn’t getting enough endorphins in their life, it’s only natural that they will try to seek out synthetic substitutes. So, if we want to help somebody get off the drugs, we need to help them get back to the kinds of practices that generate endorphins.
A lot of recreational drugs affect the serotonin and dopamine receptors, which are responsible for mediating positive feelings such as abundance and success. These are also the receptors that are targeted by prescription antidepressants. Part of the key to getting somebody off of such (legal or illegal) antidepressants is to make tangible, material changes in their life so they experience more abundance and success. Solve the problems that make them depressed. (In some cases eve this might not be enough, because of brain chemistry, in which case long-term drug use may be recommended - and some of the best medicines for depression, the psychedelics, are currently illegal).
Various traumas may make it so that people feel like they are missing something deep inside them for years. PTSD is everywhere in our society, and it’s incredibly complex - takes a lot of hard work to heal such wounds.
I believe that radically improving society by implementing Libertarian Socialism will help alleviate many of these problems: Worker and consumer ownership to help give people the sense of abundance, success, purpose, etc.
Anarchism - a culture of consent, voluntarism, play - to help raise future generations without severe trauma, to give people a chance to live their dreams and experience deep pleasure without the need for drugs, or other addictions like consumerism which not only destroy the individual body but also destroy the environment.
Still, it’s not enough to idealistically hope that people will be so happy and healthy under libertarian socialism that nobody will ever need medicine.
We need to take the two-pronged approach. And while we fix society, we also need to put all potential medicines back on the table. We need to listen to the doctors who have shown that drugs like MDMA (ecstacy) do wonders as treatments for PTSD, that small doses of magic mushrooms can heal depression and anxiety better than normal antidepressants, etc. End the weird double standard that makes some drugs with deadly side-effects perfectly legal while others with harmless side effects are felonies.
I’ve never been a partier and I think the use of powerful medicine (or even spiritual tool) as a “party aid” is stupid. But you can’t blame people for self-medicating, hoping to tap into a source of meaning in a world that doesn’t give them any. And the fact that people use them for fun means their effectiveness is obvious and accessible. We’re morons for making it impossible for doctors to prescribe them.
I appreciate this thank you. However, I do have a few issues:
I see marriage as the ultimate act of love and commitment to another person. You don't have to get married, you aren't bound by the state to stay married. Not to sound arrogant either, but to me polygamy is a terrible idea. The emotional pain it causes all involved is just not worth it.
Addiction is definitely a big problem, particularly porn addiction as almost all men in particular (plenty of women too) have a problem with it and it is more harmful than most drugs in my eyes.
The thing is though, before someone can go and do those things, their brain has to rewire itself. Say endorphins are spoon-fed to a person then it isn't much better than taking the drug. Our brains undergo a flatline coming out of an addiction where the brain chemistry returns to a normal state and we have the motivation again to get the "real deal". Not sure if that is what you were saying or not, feel free to clarify.
When looking to read anarchist theory it is standard to be directed to a canon of "classical" anarchist thinkers, including the likes of Bakunin, Kropotkin, Malatesta, Goldman, Stirner, and Proudhon etc. You would be forgiven for thinking that anarchists have not come up with any original ideas since the beginning of the 20th century. In truth, anarchism, more than most social movements, aims to maintain a dynamic link between theory and practice, and as such its ideas are constantly evolving. Furthermore anarchism has an iconoclastic, self-critical, and creative streak that is constantly seeking to overcome its own limitations and avoid ideological stagnation and dogmatism. This dispatch aims to provide a directory for exploring anarchist theory since 1950, a more or less arbitrary date, the mid-point in a century of war.
There is a great deal of overlap between the various categories below, which are by no means mutually exclusive, but separated for clarity.
ANARCHO-COMMUNISM
Anarcho-communist ideas were first elaborated by individuals who have since been idolised in the tradition. In contrast, recent anarcho-communist theory has mostly been developed within organisations and their publications, either as collective efforts or unsigned individual contributions. So there are few "thinkers" to point to, yet plenty of thought to unravel.
For example, the Anarchist Federation (AF) in Britain has done a great deal to update and refine anarcho-communism for the present day. The core theory is clearly laid out in their pamphlet Introduction to Anarchist Communism, while The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation presents an exposition of strategy and organisation. In the pamphlet Against Nationalism, the AF present perhaps the best treatment of the subject, including the controversial question of national liberation struggles. A treasure trove of ideas and reflections can be found in the pages of the theoretical journal, Organise!.
The Platformist tendency of anarcho-communism, first crystallized in the Organisational Platform of 1926, remains a significant part of working class anarchist organisation. Wayne Price has been prolific in his writing, and George Fontenis was influential (and controversial) in the French movement, particularly with his Manifesto of Libertarian Communism. Organisations such as the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) in South Africa, the Workers Solidarity Movement (WSM) in Ireland, and the Black Rose [Rosa Negra] Anarchist Federation (BRRN) in the USA, have made headway in developing the theoretical current. Recent writings from various groups and people are collected in the Platformist Archive and the website of the Anarkismo network.
Separately to Platformism is Europe, a similar current of working-class anarchism arose in Latin America known as Especifismo (sometimes translated to 'specifism'), which has since become influential across the world but particularly in North America. The essay by Adam Weaver - Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organization - introduced this current to the anglo-sphere. Huerta Grande is a seminal essay of especifismo, written by the Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU) in 1972, which reassesses the nature of anarchist theory and strategy. The most thorough exposition can be found in the Federação Anarquista do Rio de Janeiro (FARJ) document, Social Anarchism and Organisation.
Other important anarcho-communist writers include Daniel Guerin, who besides being an important figure in the LGBT movement, attempted to synthesize the best of Marxism with anarchism. Scott Nappalos introduces to anarchism the concept of 'emergence', laid out in the book Emergence and Anarchism: A Philosophy of Power, Action, and Liberation. Before moving towards libertarian-municipalist ideas, and ultimately departing from anarchism, Murray Bookchin made some important contributions to anarcho-communist theory in essays such as Listen, Marxist!, Post-Scarcity Anarchism, The Forms of Freedom, and Desire and Need. Bookchin's polemic Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm is a highly referenced piece, influential for some, heavily criticised by many.
ANARCHO-SYNDICALISM
Anarcho-syndicalists are perhaps the most sceptical of abstract and philosophical theorisation, preferring clear and concise ideas and analysis that directly relates to the practical activity of revolutionary class struggle. That's not to say, however, that these ideas remain static.
Fighting for Ourselves, written by the Solidarity Federation (SF), reassesses the history of working class struggle - identifying lessons and distinctions along the way - building up to a coherent and contemporary theory of anarcho-syndicalism for the 21st century. The SF attempt to document and draw ideas from significant experiences of workers' struggle in such pamphlets as Workmates and Anarcho-syndicalism in Puerto Real. Although it has some significant gaps, their History of Anarcho-Syndicalism proves an important documentation and engagement with the historical, international movement. The SF offer a critique of capitalist economics and an alternative vision for a libertarian-communist society in The Economics of Freedom.
Ivysyn sets out to defend anarcho-syndicalism in three essays: Is Anarcho-syndicalism Outdated?, Unionism, and Centralism and Decentralism.
Others attempt to re-affirm anarcho-syndicalism in Ready to Fight from the Institute for Anarchist Studies, and Build the Revolution by the Radical Education Department.
The revival of anarcho-syndicalism in the 1970s largely sprung from the re-emergence of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) after the death of Franco. Emerging from exile and clandestine resistance, they rebuilt a revolutionary anarchist union, upon the principles established in the document What is the CNT?.
The anarcho-syndicalist Sam Dolgoff critices those who resign anarchism to the dustbin of history, and those who seek to rejuvenate anarchism from "bourgeois" sources, in the essay The Relevance of Anarchism to Modern Society.
Various anarcho-syndicalists have built up a solid guide for anarchist workplace organising for all to access and use.
INSURRECTIONARY ANARCHISM
The above currents are more or less direct continuations of the anarchist tradition, but other anarchists have sought to shed the dead weight of tradition and strike out in new directions, with new conceptions of anarchist struggle. The ideas of insurrectionary anarchism emerged from the militant, informal, and often armed struggles of Italy, Spain, and Greece in the later decades of the 20th century.
The most well known and widely translated insurrectionary anarchist writer is no doubt Alfredo Bonanno, who clarifies an anarchist perspective - rid of dogma and anachronisms - in his essay The Anarchist Tension, while calling people to passionate revolt in the infamous Armed Joy. New ideas, and reflections on insurrectionary ventures, abound in articles written for various Italian anarchist journals, some of which can be found collected in Revolutionary Struggle and Insurrection and Let’s Destroy Work, Let’s Destroy the Economy.
At Daggers Drawn with the Existent, its Defenders and its False Critics, published anonymously, illustrates the insurrectionary logic with masterful prose; while Massimo Passamani brings fresh light to contemporary anarchist problems in the collection “More, Much More” and other writings. Examples of insurrectionary projects are documented in The Struggle Against the Cruise Missile Base in Comiso 1981–83 and The Struggle Against the Maxi-Prison in Brussels.
Many insurrectionary writings were first translated into English by Jean Weir, but found little effect in Britain. In contrast, when introduced to North America through such journals as Killing King Abacus insurrectionary writings provoked a new wave of anarchism. Written by editors of Killing King Abacus, Some Notes on Insurrectionary Anarchism has become a definitive articulation, while their essay The Anarchist Ethic in the Age of the Anti-Globalization Movement expands on those notes with contemporary contextualization and theoretical elaboration.
In Archipelago, the anonymous author draws out the ideas and practice of informal organisation. Dr Bones raises the need for immediate revolt in his appeal No one is coming to save you, Comrade. The essay Total Liberation brings together insurrectionary anarchism with the many aspects of our struggle to present a broad vision of a way forwards.
Insurrectionary ideas are often shared and developed through communiques claiming responsibility for specific attacks - explicitly bringing theory and practice together - and further developed in journals such as ProvocAzione, Canenero, Insurrection, Avalanche, A Murder of Crows, Rumoer, and many more.
POST-LEFT ANARCHY
Post-left anarchy is a theoretical current that seeks to critique and overcome the 'leftist' heritage of anarchism. Post-left critique has been one of the more iconoclastic and imaginative currents of contemporary anarchism, while also drawing on a wide range of past radical theory and philosophy.
Perhaps the most well known post-leftist is Hakim Bey (aka Peter Lamborn Wilson), who introduced news ideas, practices, and philosophies to anarchism in the book The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism.
Another significant writer is Wolfi Landstreicher, who summarises the proposal for a break with leftism in the essay From Politics to Life: Ridding anarchy of the leftist millstone. In eloquent writings such as Against the Logic of Submission and The Network of Domination he weaves together post-left critique with insurrectionary, egoist, anti-civ, and situationist ideas. He wrote other essays under the name Feral Faun such as those collected in Feral Revolution that brings the notion of 'wildness' into the anarchist cosmos.
Infamous for his bitter polemics, Bob Black develops his critique of leftism through strong criticism of Murray Bookchin in the essay Anarchy After Leftism, although his best writing shines through in The Abolition of Work.
Jason McQuinn summarises his critique in Post-Left Anarchy: Leaving the Left Behind, and explores the basis for radical theory beyond ideology in the work Critical Self-Theory.
The influential North American publications Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed and Willful Disobedience were a nexus of post-left critique with other contemporary currents of anarchism.
There is a definite Nietzschean strand to much post-left critique. Shahin explicitly draws out this inspiration in the book Nietzsche and Anarchy.
While eschewing ideological labels, the CrimethInc. collective incorporates many post-left themes into their perspective. Their most well-known book, Days of War, Nights of Love brought a whole generation of rebels and punks into the anarchist movement. The appeal To Change Everything introduces basic anarchist concepts to the general public, drawn out with more detail in the earlier piece Fighting for Our Lives. Other important texts include From Democracy to Freedom, Say You Want an Insurrection, Deserting the Digital Utopia, and There's No Such Thing as Revolutionary Government.
SOCIAL ECOLOGY & ECO-ANARCHISM
Murray Bookchin pioneered the theories of social ecology, which have since developed into a significant school of thought in their own right. A thorough explanation of this perspective can be found in the collection The Philosophy of Social Ecology, while What is Social Ecology? offers a shorter introduction. In his anarcho-communist phase, Bookchin wrote essays such as Ecology and Revolutionary Thought which affirm essential ecological principles as a basis for social-anarchism, and Towards a Liberatory Technology which defends the ecological and libertarian possibilities of modern technology, in contrast to anti-civ critique. Often considered Bookchin's magnum opus, The Ecology of Freedom is a book length exposition of social ecology as part of a broader philosophy.
John P. Clark took up the social-ecology of Bookchin, but then developed these ideas in a different direction, as expressed in A Social Ecology and other works.
The Anarchist Federation put forward a contemporary social-anarchist analysis in the pamphlet Capitalism is Killing the Earth, while Peter Gelderloos imagines an ecological future in An Anarchist Solution to Global Warming. Graham Purchase considers ecology from the perspective of revolutionary class-struggle anarchism in the book Anarchism & Environmental Survival. An eco-anarchism based in anthropology is offered by Brian Morris in the book Anthropology, Ecology, and Anarchism (which also heavily critiques deep ecology and primitivism).
ANTI-CIV ANARCHY
The major trend of contemporary green anarchism is anti-civilization theory, a category which also includes anarcho-primitivism and post-civilization anarchism. The classic articulation of the anti-civ perspective can be found in Fredy Perlman's Against His-story, Against Leviathan. A shorter, non-primitivist anti-civ perspective is put forward by Barbaric Thoughts: On a Revolutionary Critique of Civilization by Wolfi Landstreicher.
At the root of the anti-civ perspective is 'deep green' ecology, as expressed for example by Earth First! and IWW activitist Judi Barry in Revolutionary Ecology. The pamphlet Biocentric Anarchy further draws out deep green ideas as a challenge to the anarchist movement.
The anonymously published Desert has become influential across the anarchist movement, raising vital questions and possibilities in reflection on the ecological collapse currently underway.
Anarcho-primitivism takes the critique of civilization to its logical extreme, and calls for a return to the hunter-gatherer type society of pre-history. What is Anarcho-Primitivism? provides a brief introduction, while more in-depth theory can be found in the works of John Zerzan and Kevin Tucker.
Post-civ anarchy seeks to continue the anarchist critique of civilization in a non-primitivist direction. Margaret Killjoy summarises the basics in the essay Take What You Need and Compost the Rest, which is further developed in Post-Civ!: A Deeper Exploration.
Anti-civ ideas can be found developed in journals such as AJODA (referenced in the Post-Left section above) and Green Anarchy, and more recently in Black Seed, Return Fire, and Negazine among others.
ANARCHA-FEMINISM & QUEER ANARCHISM
Anarcha-feminists have brought feminist practices and critique into the anarchist movement, while also developing feminist ideas in an anarchist direction. Anarcho-Feminism: Two Statements offers a precise and powerful introduction, while To Destroy Domination in All Forms by Julia Tanenbaum documents the blooming of anarcha-feminism in the 1970s, clarifying its theoretical and practical development. During the 70's anarcha-feminist newsletters flourished, producing brilliant essays such as Peggy Kornegger's Anarchism: The Feminist Connection and Carol Ehrlich's Socialism, Anarchism, and Feminism, as well important debates such as Cathy Levine's reply - in The Tyranny of Tyranny - to Jo Freeman's critique of informal organisation.
More recently, Abbey Volcano and J. Rogue consider the conceptual tool of intersectionality from an anarchist perspective in the essay Insurrections at the Intersections. Sally Darity breaks down the normative gender binary in the essay Gender is a Weapon: Coercion, domination and self-determination, while J. Rogue seeks to learn from transfeminism in De-essentializing Anarchist Feminism. Falling star: Countering Gender Essentialism with Sex Essentialism seeks to clarify trans-feminism in relation to the limits of essentialism. The Anarchist Federation in Britain have written A Class Struggle Anarchist Analysis of Privilege Theory.
A collection of essays on feminism and sexism in the anarchist movement are brought together in this must-read zine.
The Black Rose Anarchist Federation in the USA reflect on the shortcomings of anarcha-feminism in Breaking the Waves, and seek to learn from the surging feminist movements in Latin America in several excellent texts.
In Gender Disobedience, Lilith defends the continuing validity of feminism against weak post-left critique.
An excellent collection of writings can be found in the anthology Queering Anarchism.
'Bash Back!' was an important network of queer anarchist struggle - accounts, communiques, and theories from which are collected in the anthology Queer Ultraviolence. A good summary and reflection on this tendency can be found in Tegan Eanelli's essay Bash Back! is Dead; Bash Back Forever!.
The 'Mary Nardini Gang' put forward their anarchist perspective in Toward the Queerest Insurrection and Be Gay Do Crime.
The journal Bædan develops ideas of queer nihilism, and has become a significant reference point in queer anarchist circles. In the essay Against the Gendered Nightmare, from the second issue, the authors explore the question of gender in relation to the process of domestication (as developed by anti-civ writers).
EGOISM
Max Stirner remains the primary reference of this current; contemporary reflections of Stirner's thought include The Theory of the Individual by Alfredo Bonanno, An Immense, Reckless, Shameless, Conscienceless, Proud Crime by Wolfi Landstreicher, How the Stirner Eats Gods by Alejandro de Acosta, Politics of the Ego by Saul Newman, and Mutual Utilization by Massimo Passamani.
Wolfi Landsteicher, referenced above, is perhaps the most articulate of contemporary egoists.
Sidney E. Parker began with individualist anarchism, for example in My Anarchism, but ultimately began to theorise egoism as something distinct from anarchism, as he explains in Archists, Anarchists and Egoists.
Following on from an attempted synthesis of Marx and Stirner by a group of post-Situationists, egoist-communism has become a minor tendency in itself. Egoist-Communism: What It Is and What It Isn’t by Dr. Bones provides an introduction.
NIHILISM
Aragorn! provides an excellent introduction with the text Nihilism, Anarchy, and the 21st century, discussing the relevance nihilism has to anarchism. He goes on to look at what anarchism brings to nihilism in Anarchy and Nihilism: Consequences.
Blessed is the Flame looks at the question of impossible rebellion through the lense of resistance in the Nazi concentration camps. Uncontrollable: Contributions Towards a Conscious Nihilism, meanwhile, looks to rebellion in contemporary Athens.
Lee Paxton offers a nihilist challenge to anarchism in Ultimate Profanation; as does Monsieur Dupont in the book Nihilist Communism, which through critique brings together a singular perspective. Alejandro de Acosta explores the nihilist dimension of anarchy in such essays as Its core is the negation.
The journal Hostis shares a stance of pure negation and antagonism, introduced in The Politics of Cruelty.
Much of this current is highly theoretical, often a dialogue with academic philosophy. The practical side of anarchist-nihilism, on the other hand, is exemplified by the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire (CCF). The perspective and project of the CCF is explained in their text The Sun Still Rises, while in Beyond Right and Wrong they focus on the desire to attack in relation to morality, and Lone wolves are not alone looks at the connections to be made between conscious nihilists.
ANARCHISM IN ACADEMIA
Noam Chomsky, a professor of linguistics, has aligned himself with the anarcho-syndicalist tradition in his political views. The book On Anarchism collects some of his most explicit treatments of anarchism, including 'Notes on Anarchism', a popular introduction, and an excerpt from 'Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship' which assesses the historiography of the Spanish Civil War and the anarchist revolution which took place therein. His study, co-written with Edward S. Herman, of capitalist/state propaganda has been influential; a summarising excerpt of Manufacturing Consent can be read online.
David Graeber, a professor of anthropology, has applied anarchist ideas in works such as Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology and Revolution in Reverse. His most well known book, Debt: The First 5000 Years studies the rise and development of civilisations, including the systems of domination and exploitation we struggle against, by means of an anthropological history of debt.
Ruth Kinna, a professor of political philosophy, has written Anarchism: A Beginners Guide, which, besides offering an introduction to anarchist politics, also articulates anarchist theory with academic precision. Kinna is also an editor of the journal Anarchist Studies.
The academic Uri Gordon has also produced an introductory book - Anarchy Alive!: Anti-Authoritarian Politics from Practice to Theory based on his research and activism. He has also written Anarchism and Political Theory: Contemporary Problems, a critical analysis of anarchist theory.
Professor Harold Barclay has contributed to anarchist theory, for example in the book People Without Government: An Anthropology of Anarchy, and the essay The Origin of the State.
Rebel Alliances by Benjamin Franks is a widely-read analysis of contemporary anarchism in Britain.
Several of the above have writings featured in the anthology Contemporary Anarchist Studies.
Academic research into anarchism is a fairly recent phenomenom, and has spawned groups such as the Institute for Anarchist Studies, which produces the journal Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, as well as a set of zines: the Lexicon.
Post-anarchism is also essentially an academic treatment of anarchism, and is addressed below.
POST-ANARCHISM
Post-anarchism is best described as the convergence of post-structuralist philosophy with anarchist anti-politics. Post-anarchists seek to transcend the 'enlightenment' origins of the anarchist movement.
Todd May is widely regarded as initiating this current with the book The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism.
Saul Newman introduces the ambitions of this current in The Politics of Postanarchism. Newman draws a direct link between 19th century thinkers Max Stirner and Friedrich Nietzsche, and the post-structuralist thinkers of the past half-century, and then relates this back to the anarchist project. This is evident in essays such as Anarchism and the Politics of Ressentiment, Stirner and Foucault: Toward a Post-Kantian Freedom, and Empiricism, Pluralism and Politics in Deleuze and Stirner, among others.
The essay Postanarchism is Not What You Think seeks to defend the theory against its critics while also offering some clarifications.
In the book Anarchism is Movement, Tomás Ibáñez looks at post-anarchism as simply one aspect of a broader rejuvenation of anarchism since the revolts of 1968, a tendency he refers to as 'neo-anarchism'.
VARIOUS ANARCHISTS
Here are the texts that either do not fit into any of the above categories, or give an overview of all different kinds of anarchism.
Although mostly taking a class-struggle social anarchist line, An Anarchist FAQ draws on the writings of all anarchists to build up a modern encyclopaedia of anarchist theory. [alternative link]
The New Anarchism (1974-2012) is Volume 3 of Robert Graham's mammoth 'Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas', collecting together essays from many anarchists across the world.
Colin Ward was an important anarchist thinker in Britain. His main work, Anarchy in Action, has been influential on many anarchists. He was also an editor of the anarchist newspaper Freedom and the journal Anarchy for many years.
Peter Gelderloos shares anarchist ideas on a huge variety of topics. He is most well-known for his book Anarchy Works, which addresses various challenges to the viability in anarchy in practice. More recently he published the book Worshiping Power "An Anarchist View of Early State Formation". He has written other important essays such as How Nonviolence Protects the State, Diagnostics of the Future, and Lines in the Sand, an excellent reflection on so-called 'identity politics' and its critics.
David Wieck has produced some excellent reflections on anarchism, such as The Negativity of Anarchism, which looks for a common basis beneath the plurality of anarchist ideas and practices.
The Black Rose Anarchist Federation have produced the collection Black Anarchism: A Reader, bringing together writings from several notable anarchists such as Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin, Kuwasi Balagoon, and Sam Mbah, among others. The ZACF of South Africa analyse racial oppression in their text Anarchism, Racism and the Class Struggle. K. Aarons relates anarchism to afro-pessimism in the essay No Selves to Abolish.
The essay Listen, Anarchist!, by Chaz Bufe, offers a sharp criticism of contemporary North American anarchism, particularly its individualist, primitivist, and mystic tendencies.
James Herod writes on various topics, summarising some of his views in A Goal and Strategy for Anarchy. A more comprehensive account of his perspective, based on the strategy of 'building a new world in the shell of the old' can be found in Getting free - Creating an association of democratic autonomous neighborhoods.
In the book The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, James C. Scott provides an anthropological study of ungoverned peoples.
A current of market anarchism continues to this day, primarily through the Center for a Stateless Society. A directory of writings is provided in their FAQ, and an audiobook of their major work Markets Not Capitalism can be accessed for free.
In the wonderful book The Dispossessed Ursula K. Le Guin imagines an anarchist society and its possible limitations. The Day Before the Revolution is a prequel of sorts. Another author offers a playful vision of anarchy in the book bolo'bolo.
See also:
page=dispatch/id=1485314
This is still a work in progress. Obviously I'm more informed about some anarchist currents over others, and my range of readings is anglo-centric. So it would be a great help if people could suggest new things to be added, or offer changes to what I have put together so far. If you can recommend a text or an author that's great, even better would be to provide an accompanying description in the style of the dispatch so far.
I've only included explicitly anarchist writings (i.e. not vaguely libertarian writings, or writings that have influenced anarchists). And I have only included writings that can be accessed online for free.
Anyway, I hope you all find this interesting! :)
Stroznia, Luckynia, World Anarchic Union, and Libertensi
"We must organise self-defence units to protect the Black community and its organisations. It is the police and the government who are the main perpetrators of violence against Black people. Every day we read of the police murdering and maiming the people in our community, all in the name of “law and order.” We must disarm and demilitarise the police, and force them to leave our community. Perhaps this can be done after a rebellion or insurrection drives them out, or perhaps they will have to be driven out by a street guerrilla force, like the Black Liberation Army tried to do in the 1970s. I have no way of knowing. I just know that they have to go. They are an oppressive occupying army, are not of our community, cannot understand its problems, and do not identify with its people and their needs."
"White supremacy is more than just a set of ideas or prejudices. It is national oppression. Yet to most white people, the term conjures up images of the Nazis or Ku Klux Klan rather than the system of white skin privileges that really under girds the Capitalist system in the U.S. Most white people, Anarchists included, believe in essence that Black people are “the same” as whites, and that we should just fight around “common issues” rather than deal with “racial matters,” if they see any urgency in dealing with the matter at all. Some will not raise it in such a blunt fashion, they will say that “class issues should take precedence,” but it means the same thing. They believe it’s possible to put off the struggle against white supremacy until after the revolution, when in fact there will be no revolution if white supremacy is not attacked and defeated first."
Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin, Anarchism and the Black Revolution
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lorenzo-kom-boa-ervin-anarchism-and-the-black-revolution
World Anarchic Union, Libertensi, Mandimbisoa, and Huichol cora
"Most U.S. anarchist organizations and activists opposed racism in principle, but they tended to assume that it was a byproduct of class exploitation. That is, they thought that racism was a tool the bosses used to divide the working class, a tool that would disappear once capitalism was abolished. They appealed for racial unity against the bosses but they never analyzed white supremacy as a relatively autonomous form of power in its own right."
"The critique of hierarchy in general [...] correctly insists that no one form of oppression is morally “worse” than another. But this does not mean that all forms of oppression play an equal role in shaping the social structure. The American state, for example, was not built on animal cruelty or child abuse, however pervasive and heinous these forms of domination are. Rather, as I will argue below, it was built on white supremacy, which has shaped nearly every other form of oppression in the United States, including class, gender, religion, and the state (and animal cruelty and child abuse). Understanding white supremacy should therefore be central to any American anarchist theory, and developing political programs to fight it should be a central component of anarchist strategy, even if racism is not morally “more evil” than another forms of oppression. [...] The critique of hierarchy, in other words, confuses a moral condemnation of all forms of oppression with a political and strategic analysis of how power functions in the United States."
"As the great theorist W.E.B. Du Bois shows in his classic 'Black Reconstruction', the primary reason for the failure of the development of a significant anti-capitalist movement in the United States is white supremacy. Rather than uniting with Black workers to overthrow the ruling class and build a new society, as classical anarchist and communist theory predicts, white workers throughout American history have chosen to side with capital."
"The Black freedom struggles have been the most revolutionary tradition in American history yet the anarchist scene is all but unaware of it. I suggest that there is more to learn about anarchism in the U.S. from Harriet Tubman, Abby Kelley, Nate Shaw, Malcolm X, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, James Forman, Angela Davis and Assata Shakur than from Proudhoun, Kropotkin, Bakunin, Berkman or Goldman. There is more to learn from abolitionism than Haymarket, more from Reconstruction than the Spanish Civil War, more from the current social conditions of Black America than the global South."
Joel Olsen, Between Infoshops and Insurrection
https://loveandragemedia.org/2020/04/28/between-infoshops-and-insurrection-u-s-anarchism-movement-building-and-the-racial-order/
World Anarchic Union, Libertensi, Mandimbisoa, and Huichol cora
I'd like to propose building embassies with Urras and Anarres. They are a fairly new region but close to us in values and spirit.
Please vote in the poll above. According to our current outline of Confederal Organisation:
For "Bills that require everyone’s cooperation but don’t have intense consequences - simple majority vote".
They seem really cool - so the International committee approves
Why do we have a fascist within our region? (lol)
If you already talked about it, I don't care ...
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