critique

Eco-fascism, “Overpopulation,” and Total Transformation

Somebody take away the "kill half of world's population" button away from those dastardly eco-fascists! Quick, before they use it!

from It's Going Down

A critical look at how historically white nationalists and the State have weaponized discussions of “over-population” to intervene in the environmental movement. Proposes that anarchists and autonomous anti-capitalists need new ways of discussing the unsustainability of industrial capitalism without falling into the tropes of our enemies.

by Jessie

About the Statement of the Libertarian Workshop Alfredo López in Havana

from A las barricadas, English translation by Anarchist News

by Octavio Alberola

Due to serious health reasons in my family environment, I was unable to comment on the recent Statement of the comrades of the Alfredo López Libertarian Workshop in Havana nor to the reaction of comrade Gustavo Rodriguez. I do so today because I consider it urgent to manifest that solidarity between colleagues should not impede criticism, if it is considered to be well founded; but also that it must stem from the (libertarian/anarchic) right to have a discrepancy in a fraternal debate and of mutual respect.

Burn the Bread Book: Industrial Communism Will Not Liberate You

from ziq_essays

For years I've watched a man drive his pick-up truck into the forest around me and cut down all the trees that aren't legally protected. So, every tree that isn't a pine or an oak. The moment a carob or olive or hawthorn or mastic or strawberry tree grows big enough to burn, he cuts it down and drags it away for firewood. He even fells trees I planted, while smiling and waving at me like he’s doing me a favor. I glare at him silently but don’t say a word, knowing he has the full power of the state behind him. He uses the wood to fuel his traditional bakery which has several large outdoor ovens. The much-loved industrial product he produces is bread; a product that has rapidly replaced all the native food-bearing plants of the area as they’ve been cut down to make room for wheat fields.

MARGINS OF REALITY - Massimo Passamani

MARGINS OF REALITY -- Episode 1: Massimo Passamani

MARGINS OF REALITY is a new podcasting project undertaken by a group of friends who share an intense passion for anarchy and limitless experimentation. We have been collaborating with each other for quite some time on a number of print projects (some of which will be familiar to the more notorious cretins out there), another podcast (over at www.freeradicalradio.net), and a weekly anarchist reading group that most of us have been attending for years. In embarking on this new endeavor, our intention is not only to document and share some of the insights, aporias, and experiences that have emerged out of our conversations and lived experiences of revolt; we also aim to create for ourselves and others a space of limitless experimentation and limitless self-creation for those with the audacity to "base [their] affair on nothing" and consciously construct their life against all domination and submission.

The contagion of revolt spreads…Revolts everywhere!

Since we published our previous text at the end of March,1 the unfolding of events has only further confirmed what we had there denounced: the war against the coronavirus is a war against the worldwide proletariat. The declaration of the pandemic was the scapegoat, an excellent opportunity and cover for imposing a whole series of brutal measures that despotically demand the dictatorship of profit.

Protest: A Security Nightmare

During a recent protest in a small town we have observed terrible security practices that we would like to point out.

In general, we do not think that protests are a good use of comrades' time and energy. We think that engaging in protests exhausts activists by corralling them into prescribed march routes and coaxing them into a sense of having 'accomplished something' while in reality the have only strengthened the state by providing data about the strategies and risk profiles of activists as well as practice responding to them. We do not feel that this increases activists' freedom or political power. We are not necessarily opposed to spur-of-the-moment participation in actions as opportunities arise, but we think there are important factors to take into consideration:

TOTW: Anger and enmity

Kent State, Ohio, 1970

Growing up, I would usually read the newspaper everyday. I remember leafing through it, reading the articles, looking at the photographs and how much anger it often caused me to feel. My teenage brain frequently had trouble understanding how people could be so terrible to each other and everything around them. The news was exasperating and helped to cement my growing ideas as an anarchist. In this topic of the week, we’re looking at how anger and enmity have impacted your anarchist ideas.

Against Individualism: The Individual Is Not So, by Ausonia Calabrese

Egoism -- at least, egoism as it appears as a discursive formation -- concerns a very particular ontology of the individual. Apio Ludd, known under many names, is perhaps the most well-known living egoist-theorist, and describes this ontology thusly: ...most of today’s young “insurrectionary” communists believe that you and I don’t really act, but are simply the puppets of invisible, bodiless actors like society, social relationships, movements, various collective forces that apparently come out of nothing but themselves, since if you try to bring them back to an actual source, you have to come back to individuals acting in their worlds and relating with each other. And that won’t do, because then you’d have to recognize not “the commune,” not “human community,” certainly not that mystical absurdity “species being,” but yourself here and now – a unique individual capable of desiring, deciding and acting – as the center and aim of your theory and practice. And a whole lot of the theorizing that communists carry out seems to be aimed precisely at avoiding this.

To My Critics: My Own Peculiar Albatross

To My Critics: My Own Peculiar Albatross

From Bellamy Fitzpatrick dot com by Bellamy Fitzpatrick

Under different circumstances, I would not have brought this issue up so early in my blog, and perhaps would never have brought it up, but the recent mention of me on The Solecast has made me think it is necessary to lay this issue to rest once and for all. My hope is that I will never have to comment on it again, but will be able to reference this blog entry and the podcast links associated with it to any and all future critics.

TOTW: let's try this again, on criticism

First off, I really like good criticism. To me it a sign of someone paying attention and thinking something through. Of course, really, a good compliment can be that too, but even thoughtful, articulate compliments have to get through the fog of "people are just nice," "it's only acceptable to say something kind," etc., so they're more likely to miss that sweet spot of good feedback, when the person receiving it has to step back and think about things (at least a little) differently.

Call for essay submissions: "Beyond Invisible Committees, Autonomist Zones and 'The Commune'"

Call for essay submissions: "Beyond Invisible Committees, Autonomist Zones and “The Commune”: A Few Essays on Individualist Anarchy"

In the era of "rising Communes" and neo-marxism a few of us have decided to put together a compilation zine.

We are searching for essay submissions that critique communization theory, tiqqun, the invisible committee and other forms of "Commune"ism currently trending in anarchist spaces.

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