aesthetics

Leaves of Glass

from anon

The Condensed and Cutting Clarity of the Campaign to Play for Keeps

Invisible Generation: Rants, Polemics and Critical Theory Against the Planetary Work Machine. Jason Rodgers. Autonomedia. 2021.

Art is only bearable bearing witness against itself, Jason quotes me as saying in this refulgent collection of 33 essays and 27 flyers, but then her project Campaign to Play for Keeps was one of the publishers of my essay Anarchist Adventures in Wordlessland which began, “Anarchism may be beautiful in practice, but in theory it doesn’t work. It certainly doesn’t work wonders.”

One can only wonder, then, at the delight delivered by this demonstration of wor(l)d play undermining wor(l)d processing. Invisible Generation is anarchism for thinkers, not just readers and writers.

Beer punks and anarchist cafes: politics for profit

business as usual, a valid target as ever

from Freedom News UK

Many could be forgiven for thinking it was a belated April Fools prank when, at the beginning of the month, Freedom Press released a statement reading that close to their premises in Whitechapel and out with their knowledge, the colossal Hilton hotel group had opened an upmarket cocktail bar bearing the name ‘Freedom Café’. Marketed towards “independent thinkers and coffee drinkers”, in true anti-consumerist fashion, the bar sells £14 cocktails named after book titles from the publishing house. Their menu comes in the style of an old pamphlet titled “Anarchist Weekly” and references the historic founding of the publishing house. Readers are enticed inside to find “anarchy, coffee, drinks, and comfort food”. Believe it or not, this appears not to be a joke.

TOTW: Anarchist Aesthetics

How do Anarchists recognize one another outside the bookfair, outside the demo, outside the show? In days past, and perhaps still, it was through wearing certain clothes, carrying certain books, presenting a certain attitude, styling one’s hair just so; in other words through an aesthetic.

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