Agency 2021 Year In Review

Agency 2021 Year In Review

From Anarchist Agency

2021. Can’t say we’re sad to see you go.

Beginning with a literal attempt at an insurrectionary coup by Trump’s fascist goons and closing out with still another deadly wave of COVID-19, 2021 won’t go down in the record books as a great year.

We’ve seen the continuing rise of neo-fascism and xenophobia on a global scale. Portland, OR remains a battleground. Kyle Rittenhouse was not only acquitted but celebrated as a hero for murdering BLM protestors. Mounted sheriffs whipped Haitian refugees seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. Meanwhile, Biden-loving liberals are settling into self-assured complacency for having “saved democracy.”

Yes, to no one’s surprise (or at least not to the anarchists and anti-authoritarians), it was another year of State violence, corporate rule, and wanton disregard for human and planetary need by those in power.

Congress passed the biggest Pentagon budget yet–even more than the administration had asked for and with bipartisan support. Decisions reached during the COP26 climate summit totally dismissed the urgent calls of environmental activists, despite the deepening evidence of climate collapse–from ice storms to wildfires. Profiteering Big Pharma chose vaccine apartheid at the cost of millions of lives in the Global South.

And don’t forget the same old story of quelling dissent through repression of those seeking to demand a better world; be it the imprisonment of DAPL activists or the persecution of anarchist protestors in Belarus and Russia.

Yet, as we warily enter 2022 after still another year of global mourning and pandemic fatigue, it’s important also to take a moment to celebrate our wins.

While 2021 was not quite as momentous as 2020, we saw the continued unfolding of the historic uprisings that took place the previous year. Derek Chauvin was, in the end, convicted of the murder of George Floyd. And albeit far from the societal transformation we ultimately need, progress toward prison abolition and structural racism as household concepts are nothing to sneeze at–and a good reminder that while change is slow and uneven, protest does work.

On a similar note, although there wasn’t the same incredible proliferation of mutual aid projects as during the early days of the pandemic, many of those initiatives continue to grow and support local communities across the world.

At the same time, workers here in the U.S. and elsewhere have grown more militant and organized, staging strikes in virtually every sector from retail and manufacturing to healthcare and education. (Who could have anticipated the first union of Starbucks employees?)

The global movement to force action on climate change continues to grow. Pipeline resistance refuses to die down. Neoliberal consensus appears to be weakening under pandemic pressures. And despite the growth of authoritarianism, critical resistance to right-wing governments is expanding in Latin America and elsewhere.

Perhaps most surprising, posthumously, David Graeber, one of our own, has become an internationally celebrated intellectual icon and radical pundit. Opposition is sharpening and it’s worth recognizing: a necessary antidote to cynicism and a boost for our collective morale.

At Agency, we’ve been busy helping to amplify and support these vital efforts and daily acts of resistance and reimagining. So, as we make our way into 2022, here are a few highlights from our editorial team in 2021. Onward.

With love and solidarity,
Agency

There are 5 Comments

"an insurrectionary coup by Trump’s fascist goons..." Yeah, I don't think so. More like a keg party for a remedial class currently studying 'The Turner Diaries -- minus the keg. A Mook-a-Palloza -- Slobberdammerung, is more like it.

If the Chuds had been adequate to the task of putting their pants on without assistance they could have achieved this largely imaginary "insurrectionary coup."

you know what's fukin weird is how consistent ^this messaging has been. every single mention of jan 6 gets a chorus of comments like this one. "move along folks, no coup to see heeere." you trollbots are making me suspicious with how desperate you are for everyone to believe that.

It's pouring cold water on the liberal boogyman. The 6th was a culmination of events it was not a coordinated coup attempt.

Okay, so what's your explanation for the Slobber-dammerung of Jan. 6, 2021? How credible was it?

much has been written, decide for yourself anon ;)

but I find the ill-fated love story between steve bannon and chris wylie is the watershed: not so much about whether the later stages of the half baked plans to "destroy democracy" were going to succeed, since we're anarchists, it's absurd to talk as if the US is a democracy in the first place BUT ... summoning weird ultranationalist ghoul armies of gibbering lunatics with assault rifles using social media ... even if it's just wrecking ball for an afternoon? still an interesting development in the game imo!

a new genie that can pop out of a bottle almost anywhere! careful what you wish for! chris wylie is dr frankenstein ... specifically because he regrets it.

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