Reporting from the Philippines, Russ Skelchy documents the murderous impact of Duterte’s ‘wars’ on terror and drugs, as well as the ongoing resistance to this ratcheting authoritarianism from musicians and affected communities.
An Interview with New Syndicalist
Shane Little interviews the Editorial Team behind New Syndicalist, a source of worker-led, anti-capitalist theory and strategy founded by members of the Industrial Workers of the World in the UK.
‘A New War’ – Kevin Jones on the suicide epidemic in Northern Ireland
More people have killed themselves in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement (1998) than died as a result of ‘the Troubles’ conflict (1969-1998). This interview and session performance with anarchist musician Kevin Jones addresses the ongoing suicide epidemic and its roots in the civil war. Kevin brings his musical expression and anarchist analysis to bear on the issue with a performance of his song ‘A New War’, as part of this interview with Jim Donaghey. The audio is available to stream directly, with transcript.
‘A New War’ – anarchist musician Kevin Jones on the suicide epidemic in Northern Ireland
Salvaging the Revolution – Anarchist Historiography on the Spanish Civil War
Morris Brodie tracks 80 years of historiography on the Spanish Civil War, from caricatures of anarchists as idealistic and/or bloodthirsty (by fascist, liberal and orthodox communist historians) to an ‘anarchist renaissance’ in civil war historiography in the last twenty years. He includes a list of further reading on anarchists in the Spanish Civil War.
Salvaging the Revolution – Anarchist Historiography on the Spanish Civil War
Class Struggle Anarchism – an interview with Wayne Price
Kent Worcester interviews the New York-based anti-authoritarian activist Wayne Price. He traces his political journey from early anarchist and pacifist influences in the 1950s, through the anti-Vietnam War movement of the 1960s and 1970s, to his work as a school psychologist and teachers union activist, and charts his membership of a range of activist groups of various Marxist, Trotskyist and anarchist persuasions.
‘Pick up a crowbar, and get to work’ – homelessness and squatting in Britain
Rowan Tallis Milligan uses this review article of Andrew Fraser’s Invisible: A Diary of Rough Sleeping in Britain (Freedom Press, 2019) to highlight the cruel effects of the current housing crisis in Britain, while also pointing to the resistance strategies that are being employed all over the country.
Invisible – the housing crisis and squatting in Britain
An Exchange Between Brian Morris and John Clark
Readers of the Autumn 2018 issue of Anarchist Studies (26:2) will have noted the vigorous debate between Brian Morris and John Clark, two prominent figures in anarchist academia. The exchange began with a review by Morris of Clark’s The Impossible Community: Realizing Communitarian Anarchism (2013), and continued with a reply from Clark to Morris’s review. Since publication, this debate has continued with a further reply from each individual, and they are published here (along with the original review and response).
Solidarity between the dispossessed peoples of Kenya and Palestine
Wangui Kimari, of the Mathare Social Justice Centre in Nairobi, highlights the solidarity campaigns and shared experiences of dispossession between the peoples of Kenya and Palestine.
No profit, no hierarchy: A comparative study of the ‘lower left’
Edurne Scott Loinaz, co-founder of the HAHA Academy, introduces a comparative study of 66 ‘lower left’ organisations – that is, groups that are autonomous from the state, use horizontal organisation for planning and decision making, are not for profit, and anti-capitalist. She points to the importance of thinking and communicating in terms of a dimensional ‘zone of solidarity’, rather than the damaging reliance on binary language.
No profit, no hierarchy: A comparative study of the ‘lower left’
A series of articles in response to Daniel Colson’s A Little Philosophical Lexicon of Anarchism from Proudhon to Deleuze
To celebrate the publication of the English language translation of Daniel Colson’s A Little Philosophical Lexicon of Anarchism from Proudhon to Deleuze, we are bringing you a series of articles that respond to this ‘provocative exploration of hidden affinities and genealogies in anarchist thought’.
The first is by Teresa Xavier Fernandes, who, in response to Colson’s identification of anarchism as a ‘radical critique of representation’, unpacks Nietzsche’s conception of representation as a ‘lie’. In her Nietzschean typology of ‘liars’ Fernandes identifies the anarchist as a ‘faker’ who reminds us that representation is a trap.
The Concept of Representation: Is This a Trap?
The second in the series is by Iwona Janicka, who picks up on Colson’s reference to Gabriel Tarde to discuss the role of imitation in shaping behaviour. She points to the inherently mimetic aspects of anarchism, as exemplified in anarchist housing co-operatives and other intentional communities.
Gabriel Tarde and the Anarchist Contagion
In the third article, Nathan Jun discusses Colson’s consideration of the term ‘anarchism’ itself. Colson argues that the contemporary drive to taxonomically classify ‘anarchism’ negates the ‘infinity of manners’ which the anarchist project ought to encompass. Jun, however, points to the potential for meaninglessness in leaving the term completely open.
A Few Thoughts on Colson’s Lexicon
In the final instalment, Roger Farr offers ‘affinity’ as a path to follow between the Lexicon’s terms, and ruminates on Colson’s own use of the term ‘affinity’ as a potential first step.
The Affinity for Affinity, Or How to Read the Petite Lexicon
[A Little Philosophical Lexicon of Anarchism from Proudhon to Deleuze is translated by Jesse Cohn, and published by Minor Compositions (on release to the book trade in April 2019). PDF available freely online: http://www.minorcompositions.info/?p=902]