TOTW: An Anarchist Federation

In 2020 let us flip the script. Let us, in 2020 at a national gathering (somewhere in the middle of the continent between Texas and Chicago) and form a solid "big tent" anarchist gathering with these principles.

1) Let us be united in the purpose of demonstrating anarchism as a politics of action
2) Let us not get bogged down in the specifics of hyphens. All anarchists are invited. DIYers, Red, Green, and other anarchists who wish anarchism to live as an action ideology
3) Let us pick some areas to focus our on (like New Hampshire for the Libertarians.), perhaps Vermont or Oregon.
4) Let us federate defensively, for a state and exchange free world, for a free people, and for doing things with dignity

Let us call this a (meager) first step. What is the second step? What would you do?

There are 46 Comments

what would i do? run away screaming. has April First come early this year?

So its come to this inevitable stage, when an idea which avoids organization yet requires collective affinity, finally recapitulates to survive, and slowly, incrementally, begins to compromise with the State.
Only the individualists can really say they have freedom of conscience. They do not seek representation and let their idea die amongst the multitudes, but instead gather their solitary visions, and fade away into the naked raw wildernesses of the mind, undaunted by the lonely bleak canyons and memories of society which it jetisons along the road to liberty,,,,,sigh.

"Let us pick some areas to focus our on"
All your base are belong to us?

differences! There will be no unifying if those two pesky pseudos have anything to do with it. Unifying will be the submission of the self to the united front where you will be given orders from those who know better...sounds like Aragorn and Bellamy! Only these two like to pretend they're not into on-going persuasion, only the rational truth! There is more important stuff in the world other than getting enough to eat apparently... tell that to the precariat.

if trolling, or if sincerely think an 'anarchist federation' will feed the 'precariat'

P.S. while i agree that B does seem to think he's a holder of rational truths of late, I've heard A talk at length against both rational thinking and 'truth'. have you read any of their work, or are you just going along with the meme?

appear happy to talk about stuff largely irrelevant to most people who are going under (aka the precariat). the truth is whether you're hungry or not, homeless or not, on the edge or not etc. I feel these two have fallen under the academic spell because they appear to have the 'luxury' of pontificating? I've heard Aragorn! be condescending to working class people, particularly people who are trying to band together for better conditions in their immediate daily life etc. Zerzan does the same. Sometimes, one has to do typical leftist stuff, a worker cannot just walk out if they children etc.

how dare anyone condescend the sacred working class.

let us talk about others talking about stuff largely irrelevant to most people.
this is the way.
for the children!

precariat is way more oppressive as have been so well researched by Guy Standing, the dude who is the guru of the basic income. how these arrogant anarchists who attack the precariat. I don't see what Aragorn and/or Bellamy offer the precariat...you can't live on pseudo-intellectualism. At least, Guy Standing ((a Leftist) may actually achieve a bit of wriggle room for people with the basic income. What do post-leftists actually have to offer in real terms for people in need... abstractions? Jason Mcquinn, where is he if his ideas have any substance? I don't see him in demand to spread his message. Anarchists appear to be so privileged they don't even need to eat, just spout words, the bigger the better!

"Working class" these days is an obsolescent term, in the West anyway. Have expendable income or not having it, or the old middle-class /working class binary, has been replaced by --have positive credit rating/don't have positive credit rating within a universal data bank linked to landlords, banks, welfare identity, criminal record. Everyone either works or doesn't and can either repay a debt or can't. Its approaching the defining binary categories of employed/criminal, so drop the old Marxist interpretation of privilege and class and get up to date in the 21st Century socio-economic reality mmkay!

What I mean to say is that Aragorn probably just has a positive credit rating which is enough to make anyone chirpy, confident and happy to read books and learn big words. Its no big deal, he's poor and makes good choices is all. Even a hobo could get their shit together and be seemingly affluent.

where it's going. Surveillance will be create the border to accept or reject, to include or exclude and there will be a legal force to help it along. China being the prototype with Britain providing the tax havens. Could be outright fascism too as people look to blame others. Basic Income could be seen as a curtailment of anger or as a relief.

Isn't it on the precariat to "achieve a bit of wriggle room" for themselves? Why is this responsibility being passed on to some outside agent? And why do I get the feeling that you might have some very specific ideas about who will lead the vanguard party?

it was a very strange string of posts, assuming there’s this general group people can be herded into with an assumption that they have no thoughts or thinking ability. what a lot of marketing terms!

some wall street guys jumped to their deaths in 1929, the system was so precarious. are they precariat? no more thoughts in their heads. no time to think, just act. no more job, so chance to starve to death. stupid word construction is stupid, and doesn’t really get to the heart of the matter: capitalism exploits everyone’s vulnerabilities.

anyone talking seriously about "the working class" in an anarchist context is stuck in class-based analysis. i thought only commies/socialists live there happily, wanting to rearrange power among the classes. as opposed to... i don't know... say, jettisoning class along with all the other identity categories.

or … you know, class analysis is as valid as plenty of other frameworks, give or take? I have a few others that I prefer, but if we're talking about labour or economics in general, it seems strange to throw away half the tools in the box? unless you're just anti-marxist virtue signalling as an edgelord or whatever lol

OK COMRADE

weird subject, did you mean to enter the dot under "your name"?

psh i don't use that here

I just honestly dont understand why you care about what aragorn or Bellamy would do or say. I get you dont like em. Does your life and action center around them? No? Then just do your own thing right? Why obsess about someone you dont like? Trying to be earnest here. I realize this isnt the place for it, so I dont expect a real reply.

The chairmen of the new Anarchist Federation 2020 will be persuading you with endless conversations with big words and long strings of references. They been testing it with impressionable photogenic female college students and it worked nice, so let's expand it!

Anarchism = the Zinjanthropus of revolutionary politics.

Motto: "Can't we all just get along?"

"Yes, we can all just get alone. While you commies get it ON."

Step 1, get the band back together.

Step 2, go on tour. Use bikes, engines, thumbs, and feet to roam the continent as a carnivalesque hoard. People come and go as they like, there will be no party but the dance party. Descend on small towns like a tidal wave, sweeping away up any body surfers brave enough to let go. Lurk on the outskirts of cities in small groups, moving in when necessary to scavenge, steal, etc.. Figure out what it takes to stay nomadic and avoid working for a couple months, six, a year.

I dunno though, really. Dream the dreams, live the life.

best idea i've heard in quite some time (#2).

I like the idea of going to New Hampshire alongside the Libertarians. I expect to be in the minority as far as that goes...

Step 2 - build a school so there's a next generation, I guess.

No.

WE can compare dirty laundry wearing and poor hygiene tips -- I can't wait!

Please keep your wack ass federations away from northern New England. We prefer the quiet of our isolated snow laden mountain homes. Nefac was a joke that none of us want to relive.

Coming from another northern Appalachian mountain-dweller who went through this awful NEFAC crap, I totally agree. Let's instead keep building upon the fragile trend of practical stealth anarchy.. not just puppet show theaters, but also and especially some wild confrontational shit, dance parties, DIY fests n shit.
000x fuck the fed!
And maybe, why not, an actual GABF not too far from to the border?

But I'm pretty sure that TOTW is another joke thread and we're wasting our hard-earned money once again lol

"Fuck the Fed Festival", somewhere deep in New Hampshire

Title will appeal to both libertarians (for their undying hate of the "Fed") and informal anarchos that wanna keep any @ fed away! Makes sense, no?

First mountain dwelling poster to second mountain dwelling op I feel similar and hope our paths cross!

A THIRD mountain dweller here. Do you use hot fresh urine to wash your wounds to defy community health services in populous areas?

what is all this about libertarians in new hampshire? i mean, the state motto is the best ever: "live free or die". but like everything else that poses as radical in the u.s., i've never met anyone in n.h. that remotely resembles an actual libertarian. maybe a few party Libertarians, but we know where that goes. is there some place in n.h. that i should know about?

We are talking about the Free State Project. They met their commitment goal of 20000 people in 2016. People are still in the process of moving, but some who participated in the migration have been elected to government. I guess when they all finish moving it will make somewhat of a dent in the political demographics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_State_Project

It's not really anything radical, I only mentioned it because I hang out with those kinds of people sometimes. The Libertarian Party is starting to become a little weird since Vermin Supreme is running this year, which attracts me. It's a small faction, but there are some C4SS-type individualist anarchists in the party.

Last year I spent a short time in a warm, moist zone that could be found between Chicago and Texas. At the time I thought it was such a sweet location that I would like to live there. But looking back, it was not so cool at all. I don't advise going there. Also, what is an ideology of action good for without content or coherence?

1) >politics
2) >ideology
3) >Libertarians
4) >federate defensively?

>first step? >second step?

What would you do?
I'd go "huh?"

You can not control your territory. You can not help your people. You can not help your self. It is the base.
Each evening when you are eating near your tv or laptop you can find a lot of individual and self organized communities that suffer. Because of their governments. How do you plan to help them? I need to remind, they are your people. You can not help them. Each person of your current small group can be found on the same situation anytime, anywhere. You can not stop them.

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