Tag: anarchism

Quiet Rumours : An anarcha-feminist Reader (2012)

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Post date March 16, 2020
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Author(s)

Dark Star Collective (editors)

“The current women’s movement and a radical feminist analysis of society have contributed much to libertarian thought. In fact, it is my contention that feminists have been unconscious anarchists in both theory and practice for years. We now need to become consciously aware of the connections between anarchism and feminism and use that framework for our thoughts and actions.
[…] We believe that a Women’s Revolutionary Movement must not mimic, but destroy, all vestiges of the male-dominated powerstructure, the State itself—with its whole ancient and dismal apparatus of jails, armies, and armed robbery (taxation); with all its murder; with all of its grotesque and repressive legislation and military attempts, internal and external, to interfere with people’s private lives and freely-chosen co-operative ventures.

The world obviously cannot survive many more decades of rule by gangs of armed males calling themselves governments. The situation is insane, ridiculous and even suicidal. Whatever its varying forms of justifications, the armed State is what is threatening all of our lives at present. The State, by its inherent nature, is really incapable of reform.
True socialism, peace and plenty for all, can be achieved only by people themselves, not by representatives ready and able to turn guns on all who do not comply with State directives.
As to how we proceed against the pathological State structure, perhaps the best word is to outgrow rather than overthrow. This process entails, among other things, a tremendous thrust of education and communication among all peoples.
The intelligence of womankind has at last been brought to bear on such oppressive male inventions as the church and the legal family; it must now be brought to re-evaluate the ultimate strong-hold of male domination, the State.”
Dark Star Collective ; Red Rosa and Black Maria Black Rose Anarcho-Feminists

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Tags 2012, abbey volcano, anarcha-feminism, anarchism, books, emma goldman, feminism, intersectionality, jen rogue, patriarchy, state

20th century Analytic theory Anarchism Books Capitalism Direct democracy Europe Socialism Statism - Representationism Strategic theory

The Struggle against the State & Other Essays (1996)

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Author(s)

Nestor Makhno

Alexandre Skirda (editor)

“The fact that the modern State is the organizational form of an authority founded upon arbitrariness and violence in the social life of toilers is independent of whether it may be ‘bourgeois’ or ‘proletarian’.
It relies upon oppressive centralism, arising out of the direct violence of a minority deployed against the majority. In order to enforce and impose the legality of its system, the State resorts not only to the gun and money, but also to potent weapons of psychological pressure. With the aide of such weapons, a tiny group of politicians enforces psychological repression of an entire society, and, in particular, of the toiling masses, conditioning them in such a way as to divert their attention from the slavery instituted by the State.

[…] The final and utter liquidation of the State can only come to pass when the struggle of the toilers is oriented along the most libertarian lines possible, when the toilers will themselves determine the structures of their social action. These structures should assume the form of organs of social and economic self-direction, the form of free ‘antiauthoritarian’ soviets.
The revolutionary workers and their vanguard – the anarchists – must analyze the nature and structure of these soviets and specify their revolutionary functions in advance. It is upon that, chiefly, that the positive evolution and development of anarchist ideas in the ranks of those who will accomplish the liquidation of the State on their own account in order to build a free society, will be dependent.”
Nestor Makhno

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Tags 1996, alexandre skirda, anarchism, books, kronstadt, makhnovtchina, nestor makhno, organization, russia, russian revolution, soviets, spain, spanish revolution, statism - representationism, ukraine, USSR

20th century 21st century Analytic theory Anarchism Books Global Strategic theory

Anarchism and Art : Democracy in the Cracks and on the Margins (2016)

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Post date March 12, 2020
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Author(s)

Mark Mattern

“The prefigurative potential of art lies in the arts as a domain of creativity and imagination, where artists constantly innovate new cultural forms. Each new artistic or cultural form represents new potentialities for human thought and action. Of course, artists also often simply reflect changes that are occurring in other domains. Artists constantly strive to put their feelings and ideas onto canvas and onto stage and into words, feelings and ideas that often lie outside the margins of current ways of life.

In their work we can see alternative futures.

Since the inception of the anarchist movement in the nineteenth century, ‘the arts have been an integral part of the anarchist movement’. […] It reflects back on us ; it reveals ourselves to ourselves and to others. This opens the possibility of self and social criticism. […] Many anarchists, past and present, have emphasized art’s role in adding beauty and joy to any life worth living, as well as its role in challenging superstition and social conventions.

Contemporary anarchist David Graeber asks, ‘Why is it that artists have so often been drawn to revolutionary politics?’ The answer, he argues, ‘must have something to do with alienation.’ Artists imagine things and then bring them into being ; and this is the essence of unalienated production. The link to imagining and then creating revolutionary alternatives is a natural one. And this is especially true ‘if that alternative is the possibility of a society premised on less alienated forms of creativity.’

Graeber highlights an important point about anarchists past and present : they do not accept the often dreary, mechanical, regimented, work – and efficiency- obsessed world defined by capitalism and the liberal democratic state. It does not have to be this way, they affirm.
We can create a better world, a world less marked by the mind-numbing, alienating forms of work and leisure conceived primarily in terms of consumption. We can create a world marked instead by creative, joyful, satisfying work and play. We can bridge the gap between art and everyday life.”
Mark Mattern

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Tags 2016, anarchism, art, books, culture, democracy, DIY, flash mobs, graffiti, infrapolitics, mark mattern, poetry, punk music, street art

19th century 20th century 21st century Africa Analytic theory Anarchism Anti-racism Books Colonialism Futures theory Longue durée Socialism Strategic theory Values theory White supremacy

African Anarchism : The History of a Movement (1997)

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Post date March 12, 2020
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Author(s)

Sam Mbah

I. E. Igariwey

“This work highlights the opportunities that exist for anarchism, analyzing the concrete challenges that lie ahead.
Chapters one and two deal with the history, growth and development of anarchism, from the fierce struggle between Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin and their followers within the First International to the Spanish Revolution.
Chapter three unravels the origins of anarchism on the African continent, identifying certain “anarchic elements” in African communalism and analyzing the social organization of stateless societies in Africa. It traces incorporation of African economies into the world capitalist system and poses the question, ”Is there an african anarchism?”
Chapter four examines the development of socialism in Africa. Chapter five deals with the failure of socialism and its implications for anarchism in Africa. Chapter six analyzes in detail current drawbacks to the realization of anarchist ideals in Africa. And chapter seven details the way in which anarchism represents the best, and indeed the only, way forward for Africa.”
Sam Mbah & I. E. Igariwey

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Tags 1997, africa, african anarchism, anarchism, books, decolonization, sam mbah

20th century Analytic theory Anarchism Books Europe Feminism Patriarchy

Free Women of Spain (1991)

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Post date March 12, 2020
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Author(s)

Martha Ackelsberg

“In 1936, groups of women in Madrid and Barcelona founded Mujeres Libres, an organization dedicated to the liberation of women from their ‘triple enslavement to ignorance, as women, and as producers’. Although it lasted for less than three years (its activities in Spain were brought to an abrupt halt by the victory of Franco’s forces in February 1939), Mujeres Libres mobilized over 20,000 women and developed an extensive network of activities designed to empower individual women while building a sense of community.
Like the Spanish anarcho-syndicalist movement in which these women were rooted, Mujeres Libres insisted that the full development of women’s individuality was dependent upon the development of a strong sense of connection with others.
In this respect, as in a number of others, Mujeres Libres represents an alternative to the individualistic perspectives characterizing mainstream feminist movements of that time and of our own.”
Martha Ackelsberg

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Tags 1991, anarcha-feminism, anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism, anarchy, antifascism, books, civil war, CNT, feminism, intersectionality, martha ackelsberg, mujeres libres, spain

20th century 21st century Analytic theory Anarchism Books Europe Feminism Global Heteronormativity LGBTQI+ rights North America Patriarchy

Queering Anarchism : Addressing and undressing power and desire (2012)

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Author(s)

Abbey Volcano (editor)

C. B. Daring (editor)

Martha Ackelsberg (editor)

Jen Rogue (editor)

Deric Shannon (editor)

“We think queer politics and anarchism have a lot to offer each other and we’re excited by some of the connections being drawn between the two by people in their writing, organizing, struggling, and daily lives.
So we want to suggest that an introduction to the overlaps between anarchist and queer politics could be useful at this juncture. […] We think the strong connections between anarchist and queer politics are striking. But, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
We hope this collection serves as a smorgasbord of sorts, providing insights into how we might alter the landscape of this often miserable, violent, and boring world and bring into being different ones.
We think the case here is supported quite well that there are many more fruitful engagements to emerge from this meeting of queer and anarchism—and a variety of other partnerships along the way.”
Editors

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