TOTW: 2021 - The year past, the year ahead

Topic of the week - As 2021 comes to a close, let’s take a look back at the ongoing social upheavals worldwide, inspiring anarchist actions, and the multimedia that have kept you up all night. 2021, a year in review and the year ahead.

What have been your favorite anarchist actions, communiques, projects (new and old), and events (IRL & AFK) from this past year? On the opposite end, is there a specific anarchist critique of things that stands out or a list of embarrassments for the anarchist milieu? What anarchist spaces are you looking forward to in the new year?

What have been the most intriguing anarchist (or not) texts, books, videos, music, and other multimedia? Why? At risk of creating a comment thread of lonely YouTube links, add some information and perhaps a little sentiment to help readers understand the importance to you.

We’d also like to remember some of the many anarchist friends that have passed this year: Bell Hooks, Lina Wertmüller, Dan Georgakas, Jacinto Barrera Bassols, Will Davis, Pietro Ferrua, Ian Cameron, Leon Litwack, George-Thérèse Dickenson, Enric (Henri) Melich Gutiérrez, Marc Tomsin, Michael Horovitz, Joan Liébana, Alan Pullin, Sebastian "Sabi" Senakiewicz, Arthur J. Miller, Jack Terricloth, Nelson Méndez, Dave Cunliffe, Sante Notarnicola, Hanneke Willemse, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Ken Weller, and Tobi.

***

TOTW: 2020 - The year past, the year ahead
https://anarchistnews.org/content/totw-2020-year-past-year-ahead

TOTW: [2019] The year past, the year ahead
https://anarchistnews.org/content/totw-year-past-year-ahead

TOTW: 2018 - The year past, the year ahead [ether pad link only, pre-ANews crash]
https://pad.anarchistnews.org/p/year_past_year_ahead_2018

Comments

anon (not verified) Mon, 12/27/2021 - 12:48

2021 has seen all those well-known anarchists that you mentioned pass away, as well as the Crimethinc warehouse burn down, C4SS getting banned from PayPal and Ted Kaczynski going to the hospital. I have personally had some long-time anarchist friends leave anarchism, and a couple of little tiny anarchist book fairs took place this year. And at the very beginning of the year a bunch of right-wing Trump fanatics attempted a half-assed coup in Washington D.C. Overall, it was a very bleak year for anarchism in general.

On the plus side, this year Elon Musk, currently the richest person in the world, publicly declared himself to be an "anarchist". Hopefully this means that all of the different anarchist projects around the world will no longer have to worry about funding, and that similar to the right-wing with the Koch brothers and the left-wing with George Soros we now all have a generous benefactor backing us up.

rocinante Mon, 12/27/2021 - 14:02

Here is a brief response to get the ball rolling.

Actions:
In the USA, the anarchist jurisdiction of Portland, Oregon takes the cake for number of newspaper boxes in the street, but such a spectacular title often opens up the pit for critique, as a lot of something is happening. Outside of Portland, it’s tough to pick a favorite, but here is a big list of attack! that is just a starting point for the curious.

Projects
Perhaps I mention this every year, but it’s inspiring to read and hear about translations from anarchists of anarchist material around the world; it’s always nice to see more of this (and less machine translation). Local news projects like Anathema out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the many individuals and projects that support anarchists in trouble are two sorts of projects that will always warm my heart. Outside of everything, I continue to be inspired by friends and strangers, whose projects continue to be thoughtful and gracefully accept the challenge of the most beautiful idea. **waves at friends**

Books
I’m going to jump on the bandwagon here and say it. I just started reading The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow the other day and so far I’m quite impressed. I’m far from finished, so this probably doesn’t count as official vote, but so far I haven’t put it down. I’ve managed to avoid reading almost any reviews of it, there appear to be 100s and I’m not exactly sure what it says about the book being on the New York Times best seller list, but I hope somewhere anarchists are getting paid.

One book I have finished reading is Ohio: The Truth behind Bob's Lanes by Sean Swain. While I’m not sure I would choose Ohio as the place, this book makes that solid argument and so much more. One of best reads of 2021 (and beyond)! It deserves more attention and some reviews.

Black Seed: Not On Any Map. Indigenous Anarchy in an Anti-political World is the first collection of texts to come together in book form. Little Black Cart was kind enough to send along a handful of these books, which were then shared with mostly random anarchist strangers and friends along with some copies of “The Fight for Turtle Island” in memory of Aragorn!. I hope you’re reading ‘em wherever you are! Looking forward to seeing what the second book holds. You can read every single issue of the Black Seed journal over at The Anarchist Library.

Not an anarchist book, but it seemed quite popular on certain social media platforms and I was not let down. Acéphale (1936–1939) by Georges Bataille et. al. I most enjoyed reading about Dionysus, perhaps a little too much. Like all things Contagion Press, this book is lovely to hold in the hands.

Music & music videos
I just learned of this song and video about a week ago (week ago), but it has quickly become one of my favorites for the year; Prada/Rakata by Arca. No I will not share my Spotify wrapped most popular songs here, but that was pretty funny to see all the anarchists on social media sharing their lists (thank you!). The distroismo podcast from the Steel City had some good jams on it and bit of a different podcast listen. I’m working on a best of music / videos playlist for the year, but not sure about it until distroismo podcast invites me to share. ;p

The Bad.
There are like maybe two to five individuals who continually leave the worst comments and terribleness in the Anarchist News comment section. Could the two to five individuals go outside and touch grass? Is this too much to ask? Or perhaps having to ask, is only part of the problem. Then there is just a random terrible comment here or there by who knows. Who really knows. I think you know who you are, whoever you are. Over the years, I’ve heard it all from other anarchists about how they disliked Anews because of the comment section which I often laugh at, because for one, anarchists are tough, not like gym rat tough or William Gillis jedi master Twitter threadz tuff, but able to hold the sharpest critique of society! kinda tuff. With age and this past year revealing to the wider public just how terrible society can really be to each other, I’m starting to almost think these critiques might be useful. But then again, nah. Thanks to Anews friends for moderating the kind of anarchy we’d like to see in the world. I only read the comments.

triviabot (not verified) Mon, 12/27/2021 - 15:08

the worst semantic trend of the year was the January 6th events being referred to as an insurrection. Giving insurrection a bad name and conveniently allows liberals to tarnish true revolt.

there is no best semantic trend of the year, our ability to use language clearly seems to be fading by the day.

Luke from DC (not verified) Mon, 12/27/2021 - 22:41

Video hosted on non-ad supported archive.org:
https://archive.org/details/year-in-review-2021-540p

DC Indymedia "wrapper" report around this video:
https://dcindymedia.org/node/3682

The past year in activism and politics, from the storming of the US Capitol by coup plotters to pipeline fights to the abortion showdowns

1: 2020 election battles culminate as fascist coup attempt storm US Capitol.

2: Jan-Feb: sudden vacuum as fascists retreat from failed coup attempt-no trouble at Inauguration. Giant sucking sound as combat just stops inconclusively

3: March: Anti-Pipeline and climate activism re-ignites

The Stop Asian Hate campaign and Line 3 fight comes to DC.

4: April: Black Snake marches begin. Matters come to a head in Minneapolis-and here in DC, as Chauvin case concludes and cops kill another. Fighting escalates until sudden victory in the conviction of killer cop Chauvin

5: May: late Spring, climate activism heats up and Biden faces demands to get serious. Pipeline fights get hotter

6: June: Line 3 comes to a head in MN, Capitol Pride returns as pre-Delta covid all but dies out. Nellie's Sports Bar fight gets going as security drags a Black woman down the stairs by her hair. Boycott empties the bar while protesters fill the streets out front June, July, and August

7: July: MAGAt events start showing up in DC again, more pipeline fights, videographer visits Grand Canyon

8: August: Mountain Valley Pipeline direct action blockade in SW Virginia. Home demo against Line 3 Chevy Chase, MD.
Antwan Gilmore murdered by DC police, street marches begin

9: September: Climate protests in wake of hurricane. Fascists return to US Capitol, Kavanaugh gets a home demo.

10: October: Women's March goes to Supreme Court as loss of Roe vs Wade looms. Week of spicy Indigneous-led
protests against fossil fuels and pipeline comes to DC. High Heel Race returns to 17th st. Protests begin at
Manchin's yacht

11: November: Abortion rights demos at Supreme Court, Sen Manchin runs his Masarati into protesters.
Extinction Rebellion stages high-profile boat blockade of NY Ave

12: December: Another major showdown at Supreme Court as another abortion case is heard. Patriot Front shows up in battle gear at the US Capitol only to be heckled by bystanders. Coalition of climate and social justice groups blockades most of Capitol Hill on Dec 7. The year ends with reproductive justice and pipeline vigils.

anon (not verified) Wed, 12/29/2021 - 00:32

Jan. 6th? As coup d'etats go, it wasn't all that. A stupid event in fealty to an extremely stupid leader. "Insurrection"? Please. Mook-a-Palooza or Slöbberdämmerung is more like it.

Large numbers of right-wing types are unintelligent, mentally ill and sexually pathetic, and they lack the judgement-making skills and good taste to hide it.

lumpy (not verified) Fri, 12/31/2021 - 09:46

In reply to by anon (not verified)

aww don't be so hard on steve bannon, he'll fine tune and get it right one of these times! competent death squads are just so hard to crowd source these days! might have to actually pay for them like back in the day?!

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