totw

TOTW: Anarchist responses to climate change

PLZ, NO DIVING

The effects of extreme climate change, such as heatwaves, flooding, wildfires, and rising sea levels to name just a few are not confined to borders, nor the daily news headlines, but an experience many have come to expect. Breaking away from the false solutions of the State and corporate enterprises, how are anarchists reorganizing society in response to climate change?

TOTW: An Anarchist Federation

In 2020 let us flip the script. Let us, in 2020 at a national gathering (somewhere in the middle of the continent between Texas and Chicago) and form a solid "big tent" anarchist gathering with these principles.

1) Let us be united in the purpose of demonstrating anarchism as a politics of action
2) Let us not get bogged down in the specifics of hyphens. All anarchists are invited. DIYers, Red, Green, and other anarchists who wish anarchism to live as an action ideology
3) Let us pick some areas to focus our on (like New Hampshire for the Libertarians.), perhaps Vermont or Oregon.
4) Let us federate defensively, for a state and exchange free world, for a free people, and for doing things with dignity

TOTW: Fear and Decision on New Year’s Eve

oh shite, they spotted us

The date is December 31st of 2019: Governed subjects everywhere are the target of fear from state terror, channeled into obedience and acquiescence by the chilling effect of repression. Blackmailed into compliance by the economy, their subsistence on the line. Looming deadlines summon waves of dread which plummet like lead in your gut. Panic triggered by cyclic crisis flows through your nerves like strychnine.

Generalized anxiety has been called the dominant affect of our era. We all seek shelter in delusions of Safety and Security, in denial of the fact that we'll die anyways, so we should enjoy doing what we want. Everything that we want in life is on the other side of that fear, and the only path is through it.

TOTW: The year past, the year ahead

Here at ANEWS, we’re glad you made it through 2019 with us and best wishes to you and friends for a tumultuous 2020. CYA (next decade) IN THE STREETS!

A quick glance back and some wild eyes toward the future. As 2019 comes to a close, let’s take a look back at the ongoing social upheavals worldwide, the inspiring international anarchist actions, some books that have kept you up till the early hours, and the music that has been the soundtrack to it all. How was your 2019?

TOTW: Endings

I end projects--as does everyone. I might let one fade away, with nary an update, until it has long been forgotten, or they will kind of sputter on for a couple years, while I kind of wish someone else would pick (one of) them up, or that some thing would give it a gust of air and bring it back to life. The Anvil was like that. How do you keep a totally worthwhile project going when you are kind of tapped out on it?

This TOTW is about endings, how to do them right, examples of doing them wrong, and how does one tell the difference?

TOTW: Family

For this topic, I want to focus on the people who were responsible for raising you as well as the people who were being raised around you during your childhood and teenage years – that is to say, parents and siblings, or people you considered to be in those roles.

How much has your family influenced your politics? Did your relationships with them change after you became an anarchist?

TOTW: Criteria

Ever since the anarchy bang episode on music, in which the word anarchist was thrown around like a frisbee for a caffeinated border collie, I've been pondering (and harassing my friends with the question of) how one determines whether something is anarchist or not. In the podcast episode, it was a. if the artist called themself an anarchist, b. if the content was about anarchist topics (?), c. if the content reflected anarchist values, d. if the listener felt anarchisty (?!?!?) when listening to it, e. if the musician felt anarchisty while making it, and f. all creativity is anarchist.

TOTW: Anarchist Speaking Tours and other adventures

only punk rock goes on anarchist tours nowadays

Reading through some of the Emma Goldman archives, I’m reminded and amazed to see the amount of speaking tours Emma and friends held. At one point in time over six months, she traveled to 50 different cities in 18 different states, delivering over 150 lectures and debates and that's probably not even the biggest stat for this kind of information about her. During one of her discussions, over 1,800 people attended in a city that nowadays would be lucky to have 20 people attend an anarchist conversation.

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