review
Squatters, desert cults and climate protestors
From The Art Newspaper, by Keith Miller, 13 September 2021
new book surveys the architecture of anarchist settlements
From geodesic domes in South Colorado to the Calais Jungle in Europe, this provocative work studies 60 structures that were built according to values of autonomy, voluntary association, mutual aid and self-organisation
Framing the Mentally Ill
from Bright Lights Film Journal
An Anarchist-Theoretical Understanding of Two “Jokers” by David Christopher
This article aims to demonstrate the ways in which media interests at the levels of cinematic production through to their journalistic reception work to control and marginalize certain progressive ideologies that run counter to their interests, in this particular case by deploying widespread stereotypes of mental illness and instability that map neatly, in the arena of normative ideology, onto the image of the insane clown (always an “anarchist”). It also intends, more specifically, to demonstrate the ways in which progressive anarchist philosophy remains an ideological scapegoat for even ostensibly left-inflected political stances.
Anarchist Zines & Pamphlets Published in November
From Sprout Distro
The following zines and pamphlets were published the broad anarchist space over the past month or so. We encourage folks to read and share these as they see fit.
Anarchy, Crime, and Prisons
From Anarkismo by Wayne Price
Reviews of two books on anarchism's approach to crime prevention and punishment
Review of Jacques Lesage de La Haye, The Abolition of Prison
Anthony J. Nocella II, Mark Seis, & Jeff Shantz (Eds.), Classic Writings in Anarchist Criminology; A Historical Dismantling of Punishment and Domination.
Announcing Fifth Estate #410
From Fifth Estate
Announcing Fifth Estate #410 for Fall 2021, Anarchist Review of Books issue.
It Could Happen Here: A Review
from Anathema
While only charlatans confidently predict what will happen, it's always interesting to explore what could happen. This is especially true if the coulds being explored are pertinent to the unfolding of struggles against the State and Capital. In the past couple of years, the podcaster Robert Evans has become known for this kind of exploration in his popular podcast It Could Happen Here. Podcasts, especially non-anarchist podcasts, do not normally get much attention in anarchist newspapers like Anathema. A review of Evans's podcast could seem out of place in these pages.
Critical Theory in Ursula Le Guin’s Always Coming Home
From Notes toward an International Libertarian Eco-Socialism
These are my comments, presented on October 9, 2021, at the Ninth Biennial International Herbert Marcuse conference, on the panel “Ecology and Revolution.” My co-panelists were Thais Gobo, Sergio Bedoya Cortés, and Dan Fischer.
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
from the nation.com by David Graeber and David Wengrow, review by Daniel Immerwahr
Protest speaks a language of forceful insistence. “Defund the police,” “Build the wall”—the unyielding demands go back to Moses’ “Let my people go.” So it was curious when the July 2011 issue of the Vancouver-based magazine Adbusters ran a cryptic call to arms: a ballerina posing atop the famous Charging Bull statue on Wall Street, with the question “What is our one demand?” printed above her in red. The question wasn’t answered; readers were only told, “#OccupyWallStreet. September 17th. Bring tent.”
Review: The Operating System by Eric Laursen
from Center for a Stateless Society
by Kevin Carson
Laursen is wrong, in my opinion, to define statism in entirely qualitative rather than quantitative terms, and to posit such a low threshold of engagement with the state (anything that “occupies cracks and corners within the operating system,” or relies on “infrastructure of roads, airports, housing, postal systems,” etc.) as sufficient for defining it as a component of the state.
Review: ‘A hybrid counterculture’ of anarchists
From Taipei Times By Bradley Winterton / Contributing reporter
This fascinating book on a co-founder of American anarchism and one of its key magazines, examines its core causes, including free love, prison reform, anti-militarism and women’s emancipation
Dancing & Digging by Seaweed/Shaun Woods – a review
from Eco Revolt by Julian Langer
Seaweed affirms that “(f)ree wanderers spread anarchy”; that “(a) cluster of free wanderers is anarchy”; that “(n)ature is the marvelous that the surrealist seeks”; and that “(l)aughter is a formidable philosophical position”. Seaweed also reminded me that “(t)he tragedy of civilization is that self-creation is absent”; that “(i)ndividual refusal is the most urgent move”; and that “(d)iversity makes life interesting, technology erases difference” – all resonating intensely with my individualist-eco-anarchist perspective!
Review of Laursen's new book on anarchism and the state
from Anarkismo by Wayne Price
His overriding metaphor of the state is as a master operating system. Whatever its advantages in showing society as dynamic and interacting, it leads to underestimating the internal conflicts within the society, such as between capitalists and the state. Particularly, it leads to downplaying the class conflict within capitalism. The book is also weak in considering what an alternate social system might be like.
When We Are Human, by John Zerzan – a review
From Eco-revolt by Julian Langer
When I found that a copy of Zerzan’s new book, When We Are Human, had reached me I was immediately excited and keen to read. I am continually moved by Zerzan’s thought and writings, despite many points of difference in perspective or approach. It was largely a desire to encounter these differences that motivated me to email John and ask him to send me a copy of the book, to review. As I encountered these points of difference in perspective I was mostly very glad to experience them, because they affirmed my experience of John Zerzan as someone who is not me and someone I can appreciate for being-them and the thought being-theirs – there is one point of the text, which I go into more detail on in a more critical section of this review, that, I will share at this point, did offend me and is in my eyes the worst thing I’ve ever read by Zerzan; but I will state that much of this text is some of the best and most beautiful writings by Zerzan.
Eric Laursen Owes Me a Lamp
from It's Going Down
Eric Laursen Owes Me a Lamp: Some Reactions to ‘The Operating System: An Anarchist Theory of the Modern State’
In the meantime, I’d love it if he reimbursed me for the lamp he made me break, or better yet throw that amount of money (it was $14.99 plus tax) onto the commissary fund of one of the hundreds of real people who will get real time for doing some beautiful real shit that really did happen.