Jim Donaghey critiques a selection of the wide range of anarchist responses to the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic so far, and discusses the currency of anarchism in this profound crisis. Anarchist ideas and anarchistic organising principles have, once again, gained traction in the popular imagination. Anarchists of all stripes can, and should, contribute to this popularisation from their own specific perspectives, but we cannot remain confined within our echo chambers. Our ideas are crucial at this moment as a bulwark against the oppressive trends of increased police powers and state surveillance.
COVID-19 and Social Reproduction
Covid-19 has brought to the fore two major tenets of contemporary anarchist and feminist thought: the importance of social reproduction and the frequent inadequacy of the ‘nuclear family’ as a means of living together. Rowan Tallis Milligan argues that the crisis offers an opportunity to rethink how we might want to live differently, what it means to live happily, and what really is important in our everyday lives.