post-left

TOTW: Not anarchist

Topic of the Week: Not anarchist

Topic of the Week – Here at Anarchist News, we sometimes receive article submissions that are not anarchist, don’t mention the anarchist word, and come from more of a leftist space. Often, these texts mention related words like “radical,” “anti-authoritarian,” “anti-capitalist,” “anti-state,” and “antifa” or talk about subjects that are of interest to anarchists, but not specifically by or about anarchists.

A Dagger of Feral Anarchy

by Flower Bomb

I remember once over-hearing a conversation in which there was a debate between using “post-left” or “anti-left” to describe anarchy beyond leftism. I thought this was an interesting conversation because it reminded me of how I once viewed and related to anarchy. I remember having viewed anarchy as a world to create, necessitating the organization of others to materialize it. Over time my relationship to anarchy shifted. Soon I found myself relating to anarchy as a sense of feral becoming – a personal revolt that placed emphasis on self – responsibility rather than co-dependence on others. This shift came from the understanding that people are not a singular mass herd of mindless followers but instead unique, complex individuals capable of independent thought, decisions, and actions. For me, anarchy beyond leftism abandons the idea that people are in need of organized leadership, and puts forward an understanding of how people discover their own power best when they’re governed, organized, or controlled the least.

Kill The God of Work & All His Clergy

Anti-work cartoon

From: https://raddle.me/wiki/anti-work

I'd say one of the most impactful components of anarchy through the ages, and especially in this current decade is anti-work - the idea of completely rejecting the notion of work. Though as old as civilization itself, anti-work ideas have been steadily regaining momentum in modern times, starting in small anarchist circles, and now taking off explosively in mainstream culture. Millions of people around the world have suddenly found themselves exposed to this very anarchist concept.

Margins of Reality - Episode 2 - Post-Left Anarchy

from https://margins.noblogs.org

The second episode of MARGINS OF REALITY - a podcast by and for unmenschen. This episode concerns the current state of the phenomenon called post-left anarchy. We read Wolfi Landstreicher's "From Politics to Life - Ridding anarchy of the leftist millstone" and Jason McQuinn's "Rejecting the Reification of Revolt".

New issue of UK anarchist zine Return Fire

New issue of UK anarchist zine Return Fire

Return Fire vol.6 chap.1 now out, & new PGP key

This chapter features anti-authoritarian propositions, social movement analysis, dispatches from frontlines of revolt and from its edges, conceptions of various indigenous anarchisms, odes to play and dis-alienation, the usual repression reports and action methodologies, love letters to the land and bodily practices for rejoining ourselves with it...

Anarchy Against Unity: Five Theses on Anti-fascist Left Unity Today

1. The left-wing of ideology obfuscates as much as its right-wing counterpart.

The left operates according to a calcified logic that veils the nature of the social order around us. Regarding anti-fascism, this confusion manifests within the context of a false dichotomy imagined between fascism and democracy. The master plan is that anti-fascism must function immediately as a means of restoring capitalism to its more “human” state, demonstrable trajectories of fascism as an outgrowth of liberalism be damned. Other instances of muddled theory include reductive frameworks that posit class as the sole site of struggle, the obsession with consciousness raising, and an unyielding faith in the democratic principle.

Green House Distro

Green House Distro is a collective based out of the Southeast focusing on topics of anti-authoritarian, anti-civilization, post-left, vegan, straight-edge, individualist and drop-out (lifestyle anarchy). We call ourselves nihilist because of the impending doom of climate catastrophe caused by our current set of living arrangements - civilization. We do not see any hope with this set of living arrangements. Instead of living for the future or a better day we aim to live for NOW. Destroy that which destroys you.

From Identity to Individuality

Note: In this piece, I will be using '‘leftism’ and ‘identity politics’ more or less interchangeably, due to their often heavy overlap.

I grew up in a liberal household to liberal parents, and I had always had a preoccupation (some might say an obsession) with justice. From a young age, I would rage against the injustices committed against the trees felled behind our house, the mice killed in the snap traps, the insects caught by the glue paper, the deer shot by the hunters. “It’s not fair!” was a mantra oft screamed from my tiny mouth, and as I grew, it hardly changed.

The Hollowing of Anarchy: Gentrification

From scholium

Anarchy can differ from other anti-capitalist ideologies in being a lived practice. If anarchy is the end goal, then it must be the means as well. This often turns out looking like working as little as possible, living communally with friends, getting by using scams, and experimenting with social relationships. Unfortunately, these more interesting and liberating tendencies based in subverting daily life are receding as gentrification closes off possibilities for living cheap in the cities. What remains in the U.S. anarchist space is activism. Lacking this daily life component, anarchy slides back into leftism.

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