relationships

TOTW: Anarchist Mentors

this is the way, welcome to my classroom dojo

Topic of the Week: The word mentor is defined as a trusted counselor or guide who is often someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and normally younger person. Mentoring is often associated with the business world of professional development for on-boarding new workers into a new job with the process sometimes lasting multiple years. This week were taking some time and space to dig into the world of anarchist mentors.

Subverting the ‘dog eat dog’ dogma

people participating in a drum circle

From Freedom News

According to neoliberal ideology it is a “dog-eat-dog” world. But where and when do you see dog eating dog? Unless they are starving (due to unnatural conditions), badly socialised (a problem of conditioning) or on a leash (the perfect metaphor for the dysfunctional nature of authoritarianism), you are much more likely to see dog-sniff-dog, dog-play-with-dog scenarios.

TOTW: Mostly made of water

a tree falling into the great lakes

We’re mostly made of water. This week we’re exploring anarchist ideas and their relationship to water. Is there such a thing? Do you have a relationship to water? Do you define it as such or something else? What is your anarchist hot take about water?

totw: Strangers

doppelganger from "Enemy" (2013)

If it's "all about who you know," what about the people you don't know? Dealing with strangers is not unique to anarchists, but the consequences of trusting someone new can hold special weight. Common practices such as security culture and the affinity group shield us from unfamiliar people in our close circles. Pair this with a distrust of technocrats and the rejection of community and all signs point toward the fact that hell is, in fact, other people. But is it that simple?

Poly and Other Relationships, on Immediatism

Immediatism has been looking at relationships and how anarchist views, and ways of talking about relationships, have changed over time. This was done by reading all of the following pieces in chronological order, followed by a piece translated by Seaweed as an encore. Here, you have Emma Goldman and Voltairine de Cleyre to compare with Clemence x Clementine and Andie Nordgren.

TOTW: Anarchy and Trauma

TOTW - Anarchy and Trauma

I know that, before I had ever encountered critical discourse or radical politics, before I'd attended my first protest or meeting, before I had debated anyone on political theories either face to face or on the Internet, my first experiences of disenfranchisement towards the state, capitalism, civilisation, etc., and desires to rebel came from direct personal experiences that were mostly, in some way or another, traumatic. The trauma of childhood poverty, of bullying teachers in school, of family members dependent on drugs and alcohol, these all left me with a feeling of "I hate this shit", long before I had read anything on economics or anarchism.

Horrible Creatures

Horrible Creatures

by Sever, via electronic mail

to all those who left after their comrades treated them horribly

When the survivors realize that all the mayhem and tumult was a revolution—our revolution—and that it's already slipped away from us, a mocking failure belying our pretensions to anything other than misery, other than failure, the blame will start.

TOTW: Niches and Roles and Eco-systems Oh My

This week anews moderation was once again impugned. A member of thecollective brought up that no website can/should try to/will ever satisfy all the people's needs. If a healthy biosphere (to work a metaphor) has multiple options to meet various needs, or brains (to use a different metaphor) after damage can build different connections after to re-enable skills and memories, then what are ways that we can, right now, get our needs met? Or perhaps more clearly stated, how do you use your different anarchist connections differently? How does raddle work for you in ways that anews doesn't, and vice versa?

Important Updates and Talk at Please Try This at Home

professionalism!

From Emotional Anarchism

This last weekend Emmi and Jahed gave a talk at the queer anarchist biohacking conference called Please Try This at Home about personal, interpersonal, and biochemical approaches to mental-emotional well-being in radical politics.

Anarchist Feelz Circle Retrospective

From Emotional Anarchism

We ran what we called an Anarchist Feelz Circle for the better part of a year in our community of activists. To do so we started with a very small Signal messenger group with people we trusted to be in it. At the start it was only about 6 people. Over time we added more people though. I hosted all of them in my living room and was largely the driving force behind them though there was a lot of support around their existence. We just did 3 P’s every-time and while it was mostly the same people every week it did change a bit from week-to-week.

Notes On Friendship And Destitution

From Conflict Minnesota, Anonymous submission to Conflict Minnesota

On some recent sunny evenings in south Minneapolis, an advertised reading group met to discuss the book Joyful Militancy. One of the discussions was framed with a question posed by the book: “How do we create situations where we feel more alive and capable than before?”

TOTW: Polyamory

This topic comes up from time to time but usually buried in something else. I have found that polyamory (or other versions that boil down to having deep, romantic, non-exclusive relationships over time) is the most consistent way to keep anarchist community strong over time. Obviously this isn't everyone's goal. Some people want insurrectionary (sudden, bursting anarchy that can go away as fast as it comes on) relationships. Others want organizational relationships (manifestos, lots of meetings, and hard straight lines).

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