Part I. Anarchist Strategy: A Reintroduction
Why are we concerned with anarchist strategy?
If strategy is the process of having priorities and subsequently acting on those priorities then an anarchist strategy names a discreet objective (in this case the establishment of an anarchist society upon the destruction of a capitalist and statist one) and sacrifices other priorities in the pursuit of that goal. An anarchist strategy is not a strategy about how to make a capitalist or statist society less authoritarian or spectacular. It assumes that we cannot have an anarchist society while the state or capitalism continues to reign.
We are not for more freedom. More freedom is given to the slave when his chains are length... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Introduction to Consequences
This is the second in a series of pamphlets that draw connections between the tradition of the political nihilist tendency of 19th century Czarist Russia and current anarchist thought.
As Nihilism, Anarchy, and the 21st Century (the first pamphlet in the series) begged the question of what relevance nihilism has to anarchy it could be argued that these essays beg the opposite question. What does anarchy have to offer nihilism?
That the range of anarchists includes the clowns from protest alley, micrometer-toting specialists of oppression-identification, and Marxists who wear black flags isn’t a condemnation of anarchist ideas but is a significant reason for pause. In that pause we have... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) To start out the hottest summer, (to date) the planet has had, I decided to help out by spending two months driving around the country, burning fossil fuels and talking about Anarchy and a variety of other anarchist topics to people all around the Midwest and East Coast. Much of the collective joined the tour at one point or another and together we visited over two dozen towns and attended five different weekend events over a nine week period.
As a member of the new collective I wanted to get involved in the enormous project of understanding people’s perception of the magazine and getting direct knowledge of local anarchist politics throughout the country. I was able to do this because of personal economic devastation (resultin... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Most tendencies within anarchist circles have a narrow conception of what exactly makes an anarchist, what an anarchist project is, and what the transformation to an anarchist world will look like. Whether Green or Red, Communist or Individualist, Activist or Critical, Anarchists spend as much time defending their own speculative positions on these complicated issues as they do learning what others have to offer — especially other anarchists.
As a result many find that they would prefer to do their projects, political and social, outside of anarchist circles. Either they do not think their particular project is interesting to anarchists but believe it’s important none the less (as in most progressive activism) or they do ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Introduction
Perhaps you thought we were gone? Two years feels like an eternity in these fast-too-fast times when epic conflicts have a full arc over a weekend, 140 characters creates volumes of commentary and opinion, a day seems like forever when you are refreshing a screen over and over. This project is the opposite of this spirit. Herein we hope to share themes that are fuller in scope, that merit reflection and contemplation. We intend to plant seeds and to care for them as they flower, mature, and decay. The half lives of our pleasures, concerns, and conflicts should be measured in decades and not in the blink of someones eyes or even the length of time the average radical stays active.
Welcome to issue five of Black See... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Welcome to Issue #6
The sixth issue of Black Seed continues an effort to challenge and expand the meanings of both Green and Anarchy. As editors and contributors, we not only wish to reject notions of the state and capitalism, but seek perspectives that are earth-focused, unexpected, or inhuman.
The binary of the Fearsome Sky God and Sweet Mother Earth is a historical fallacy. If we seek to speak of the earth, let it not be in language perverted and twisted by narrow-minded gender ideals, but in language that rejoices in the cruel glory of the natural world.
The preceding is from the call for submissions to this issue. Even beyond this issue and this theme, this callout stands as a marker for our continuing efforts to l... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Twilight of the Machines by John Zerzan Feral House, 2008 141 pages. Paperback. $12
The publication of another John Zerzan book will likely be responded to in entirely predictable ways by the majority of the anarchist milieu. Anyone who is not interested in green anarchist or anti-civilization thought will dismiss the book out of hand. It is a nonevent. Similarly, since John is the best known North American anarchist, there will be those who turn to the book as a State of the state-haters, seeing it as something Zerzan has never claimed it to be, but perhaps is needed. Like his other books, Twilight of the Machines is a collection of Zerzan’s articles — this time from his magazine Green Anarchy, Species Traitor a... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Corrina Gould is a Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone woman, born and raised in Oakland, CA- or the ancient village of Huichin. She works at a drug and alcohol program for Native women and children, she and her close friend Johnella LaRose started the Shellmound Walk and the yearly Shellmound protest that happens at the Emeryville mall on Black Friday. Here, she talks about the history of indigenous people in the bay area, the shellmounds, and the spiritual occupation at Sogorea Te.
Aragorn! (A!): Can you talk a little about why you thought about doing the shellmound walk, the history of shellmounds in the bay area, and focus more on people finding them and celebrating them (instead of just paving over them).
Corrina: Yeah, there are... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Klee Benally is originally from Black Mesa and has worked most of his life at the front lines in struggles to protect Indigenous sacred lands. Klee doesn’t believe the current dominant social order (read “colonial system”) can be fixed but should (and will be) smashed to pieces. When asked about his politics he says, “I maintain Diné traditionalism as my way of being in this world. I have affinity with Anarchism and identify myself as an Indigenous Anarchist.” Klee performed with the rock group Blackfire for 20 years and performs solo today. http://kleebenally.com/
Aragorn! - What would it look like for someone who has no spiritual practice to develop one?
Klee -That’s a very personal... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Aragorn! is an anarchist publisher (at http://littleblackcart.com), talker (http://thebrilliant.org), and has been involved in building Internet Infrastructure since the late 90s.
The beautiful idea: Anarchism means many things to many people. Classical anarchism in Europe defined itself in relief to its three opponents: the church, state, and capital. In our historical estimation, we find that anarchism in America has been known in any given time much more through its associated struggles. Decades ago, it was synonymous with punk rock. Even before that, it bore the face of immigrants: Emma Goldman, Johann Most, Sacco and Vanzetti. Contemporary anarchism has been linked to the anti-globalization movement and more recently, Occupy. Th... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) It’s easy enough to hedge about politics. It comes naturally and most of the time the straight answer isn’t really going to satisfy the questioner, nor is it appropriate to fix our politics to this world, to what feels immovable. Politics, like experience, is a subjective way to understand the world. At best it provides a deeper vocabulary than mealy-mouthed platitudes about being good to people, at worst (and most commonly) it frames people and ideas into ideology. Ideology, as we are fully aware, is a bad thing. Why? Because it answers questions better left haunting us, because it attempts to answer permanently what is temporary at best.
It is easy to be cagey about politics but for a moment let us imagine a possibility... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Introduction
This pamphlet about nihilism is intended for an anarchist audience. Throughout the course of compiling this there was a certain temptation to preface sentence after sentence with ‘From an anarchist perspective’ or ‘As an anarchist’ because my evaluation of this subject material comes from an anarchist orientation. I resisted making such a pedantic statement over and over again within these pages but I would remind the reader that the assumption holds.
A few notes about the narrative arc that I intend here. My intention is to expose anarchists (who might not be otherwise) to the breadth of the nihilist contribution. I have gone further afield than I generally would. Normally I would be satis... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Ultimately everything I do, every project, everything I build, every relationship I start is going to fail. The world, to the extent that I am part of it, is also dissolving. This building/destroying is my expression of a feeling that lives somewhere between the Protestant work ethic, the will to inflict anarchy on the world, and an attitude against the projects of Man. I am satisfied living here, in this unstable place, continuing to do things that will blow away as soon as the center stops holding. I’m satisfied to call this nihilism, not because that is what it is, but because our culture is into naming things and I am into sending lemmings off of the cliffs of their own creation.
There is a current that breezily uses animis... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The story of the people who have not written the history books, who have not built empires, and who have not aspired to lord over others is our history. To some extent, the nature of these times is that for this tale to be told, each of us have to make a commitment to it, to both write, speak and learn about the crevices and shadows in which the “winners” did not invade, and in which we live. This story of survival, of just getting by, is the story of the life of the vast (as in over 90%) majority of the people throughout time, throughout modern civilization. Survival is the only possibility when participation means what it does today.
While this text cites Europe as the ultimate expression of the successes that reflect o... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) One of the reasons that anarchism has become a popular political perspective is because in many contexts (for instance mass mobilizations or broad direct action campaigns) we seem open, friendly, and nonsectarian. This is in great contrast to visible (and visibly) Marxist or Leftist organizations, which either seem like newspaper-selling robots or ancient thorny creatures entirely out of touch with the ambivalence of the modern political atmosphere. Anarchists seem to get that ambivalence and contest it with hope and enthusiasm rather than finger-wagging.
The public face of anarchism tends towards approachability and youth: kids being pepper-sprayed, the general assemblies of the occupy movement, and drum circles. These are the image... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) “The history of thought is the history of its models”
— Fredric Jameson
The image that the term “a person of color” brings to mind speaks to the bias of the interpreter. White racists see the person of color as the target of their bias, the center of their mythology, and the point that they must counter. The liberal left sees the person of color as the racialized product of decades of government works, as the producer of quality popular culture, as statistics, and as the noble worker of the land. The radical left see the person of color as the revolutionary subject that must be made aware of their historic task. But what does the ‘person of color’ see themselves as? Are we the angr... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Elephant Editions/Quiver
PO Box 993
Santa Cruz, Ca 95061
60 pages
This new pamphlet by Elephant Editions is a transcript of a presentation by Alfredo Bonanno on the distinction between prison abolition and the destruction of all prisons. It is a particular pleasure to read not only because of how personal the subject matter is to Bonanno, but because the distinction itself raises interesting questions about future solidarity and coordination with other so-called radical groups.
At the heart of the distinction is the idea that even the idea of prison abolition (which in this country is seen as the height of radicalism within the emaciated prison reform movement), is fully capable of being integrated by a progressive p... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Riding the Wind — A New Philosophy for a New Era
by Peter Marshall
Continuum New York, 2000
262 pages. paper. $35.95
Peter Marshall presents this as a book of philosophy, but is actually a jargon-free restatement of social ecology for a nonpolitical (in the anarchist sense of the term) audience. As such, it stands as a clear explanation of the motivations and aspirations for such a society and a decent introduction for someone who is already attracted to green and left-of-liberal ideas. It promotes a vision of a society that is very different than this one. In addition, Marshall’s ideas should provoke discussions about sustainability, kindness, and social change from a different orientation than more radical ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Species Traitor #4
(PO Box 835 Greensburg, PA 45601)
192 pages, paper, $10
While this is the fourth issue of this zine, the format has changed considerably from the flimsy all-newsprint microscopic print of the last issue. Taking a cue from the now defunct Do or Die, Species Traitor #4 is almost 200 pages long and in a journal-style format — for the purposes of review crossing the threshold from magazine to book. This is a handsome edition with clean layout, a high quality cover, and good selection of images throughout.
There are a couple of obvious points to make about ST. While the cover may say insurrectionary (as in “Insurrectionary Anarcho-Primitivist Journal”), Kevin Tucker (the primary force ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Twilight of the Machines
John Zerzan
Feral House (2008)
142 pages. Paper, $12
The publication of another John Zerzan book will likely be responded to in entirely predictable ways by the majority of the anarchist milieu. Anyone who is not interested in green anarchist or anti-civilization thought will dismiss the book out of hand. It is a nonevent. Similarly, since John is the best known North American anarchist, there will be those who turn to the book as a State of the state-haters, seeing it as something Zerzan has never claimed to be, but perhaps is needed. Like his other books, Twilight of the Machines is another collection of Zerzan’s articles from his magazine Green Anarchy, Species Traitor and this magazine.... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Constituent Imagination
ed. Stevphen Shukaitis & David Graeber w/ Erika Biddle (AK Press 2008)
336 pages. Paper, $21.95
This is an eclectic book. While the central question lies in the neighborhood of how to reconcile activism with academia, there are plenty of plot points off the mean. DIY Punk Rock, anti-racism, crocheting, tree-sits, and anti-globalization tourism are among writings on real subsumption, praxis, ethnography, and the multitude.
Consistent Imagination is organized into four stanzas that comprise the editor’s view of the relationship between radical theory and the “movement of movements” of social change, each with an editorial introduction. The first is titled Moments of Possibi... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Stories of the Raccoon People
The first part of an ongoing series of Anarchist Myths
Oh come dance with me, Raccoons
We’ve feet and the time to share
We are the people who have chosen life
More than they would know
Oh come run with me, Raccoons
they can’t understand
grayness and the death of routine
from which we run away
Oh come sing with me, Raccoons
We’ve been quiet for far too long
we must sing the stories
of our passions and desires
Oh come search with me, Raccoons
food and rest aren’t easy to find
Let’s find the world beneath
where we would rather be
(We dance) because we are alive.
We are not of shadow or gray
but of bone, fur and high spirits.... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) We would like our relationship with capitalism to be simple; we are against it. But behind the simplicity of taking a firm stance is the tragedy of the anarchist archetype. A fixed stance against capitalism, hierarchy, god, the state, oppression, racism, sexism, homophobia (and more); demonstrating curiosity only to find new things to say “no” to. If anarchism[1] is going to continue being interesting, relevant, or challenging into this century, then our reactionary pose has to be confronted.
Let’s establish terms. Let us enclose our understanding of capitalism within an anarchist framework rather than a dictionary definition or being enclosed within it ourselves.
Up till now anarchists have defined themselve... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.
— G. Carlin
If publishing is defined as the practice of putting ink onto paper and then getting that into the hands of people, then publishing — and anarchist publishing in particular — is on the ropes. While there are arguably more anarchist books being published than at any time in history, readership is shrinking. Anarchist publications, magazines, newspapers, and journals, are nearly universally diminished. Infrequent publishing schedules and decreased print runs indicate that the time for print may be drawing to a close for anarchist periodicals.
The counter to this statement is that there has been a corresponding, if not larger,... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) While the intention of this essay is to evoke images of an anarchism with a center of gravity outside of the Continental Tradition it will do so while also questioning anarchists’ ability to live and think outside of authority. Because while the theory of a belief system opposing authority in the form of State and Capital may seem to naturally reject Eurocentric History and culture, in practice it does not. Moreover, the ability of nonwhite anarchists to articulate a vision (outside of the confines of either reclaiming national liberation struggles as libertarian or parroting New Left slogans as if they were not tired and trite) is still in question.
A word about language:[1] I have chosen to italicize the term People of Color... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) endgame, Volumes I & II
by Derrick Jensen
Seven Stories Press
New York, NY
929 pages. Paper. $18.95
Prior to the release of endgame there was quite a bit of buzz about the book in anti-civilization circles. The expectation was that this book was going to make explicit Jensen’s previous flirtations with anarcho-primitivism (for instance his widely republished interview with John Zerzan from The Sun). Volume one was going to make the strong indictment of Civilization, volume two would discuss how, exactly, to bring civilization down. endgame was expected be an anarcho-primitivist manifesto by someone who is a skilled writer rather than a philosopher, student, mail-bomber, or propagandist.
... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)