It looks very official for being anarchistic(?) Are there one, (or more), resource(s) that you would recommend for someone who doesnât understand what anarchism is really about, and how it would solve problems that are solved by todayâs society and those that arenât solved? The only thing that comes to mind is Sex Pistolsâ Anarchy in the UK. @Denny@jabel
Yay @jabel! @odd, yes, the Sex Pistolsâ are what many think of. Young, angry punk rock kids are one of the most visible cultural expressions of anarchism in the past 50 years. But no, I would point you to the writings of Murray Bookchin who was a notable Social Ecologist, anarchist, libertarian municipalist⌠lots of labels that point to different nuanced aspects of anarchism. Murray authored many books about his vision of a society guided by direct democracy, a commune of communes. His vision, described in his later years as libertarian municipalism, emphasized building hyper local institutions of direct democracy that worked at the neighborhood level and federated up to the city level and then to the bio-regional level. His works were actually adopted in the struggle weâve seen in recent years in Rojava and âthe Kurdistan Workersâ Partyâs (PKK) imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ăcalan, who decided to infuse the Kurdish political project with Communalism, popular assemblies, and confederalism. â (quote from link below).
And in the 1930s the Spanish Anarchists formed the core resistance to Franco in the build up to WWII. They built community-based worker collectives and cooperatives that ran some of the towns, cities and farms. When Franco led the army to overthrow the elected democratic government the anarchists defended the government.
In the US the 1800s and 1900s were chock full of anarchist unions, most notably the IWW and the struggle for the 8 hour day was largely populated by anarchists. So much of the cultural history of the US has its roots in the IWW and the more radical, anarchistic side of the labor movement. Then projects like Dorothy Dayâs Houses of Hospitality and the Catholic Workers. Itâs unfortunate (but no accident) that more in the US donât know this side of history. Itâs not in the typical public school history book.
Anything by Bookchin is worth a read. But it can get pretty dense. His primary text is probably The Ecology of Freedom. But it would make sense to start with his introductory texts. I can make a list if youâre interested.
@Denny Have you ever heard Utah Phillipsâ album âWe Have Fed You All a Thousand Yearsâ? Glorious Wobbly songs and stories. Never fails to inspire and move me.
@jabel Hells YES I have!! I dearly love that manâs voice and story telling. I find great comfort in all of his work! â¤ď¸â¤ď¸â¤ď¸
He did some fantastic work with Ani DiFranco too. I love those Wobbly songs. I believe there is still an ongoing effort to revive the IWW. Back in the 1990s we had a local branch of the IWW set-up in Memphis. A small group, we met in the context of several other community projects and supported any local union activity when it came up in the area. I left Memphis in 2004 and Iâve not kept up on the IWW in the years since though I think efforts are still ongoing. Iâve got my red card around here somewhere.
Yes, âşď¸ I did notice that after a while. Btw: I donât see your first reply to me about anarchism in my Mentions tabâŚđ¤ Thanks for your posts. I will read them when I have good time, because Iâm not going to skim this.
@Denny Iâm intrigued that you consider Dawn of Everything anarchist (and donât mention Wengrow).
Iâd prefer to say it sets out a case for distributed decision making that is not representative democracy and that societies can be remarkably fluid about how they decide on things.
@jeremycherfas The Dawn of Everything, Iâve not read it yet. Iâve read bits and listened to bits. But I canât comment! Itâs been discussed favorably and recommended by many though. I hope to read it soon.
Oh, I see it! Side note, I think we may be the only anarchists on micro.blog. Well, Iâll say, youâre the only other Iâm aware of. đ¤
@Denny đââď¸
It looks very official for being anarchistic(?) Are there one, (or more), resource(s) that you would recommend for someone who doesnât understand what anarchism is really about, and how it would solve problems that are solved by todayâs society and those that arenât solved? The only thing that comes to mind is Sex Pistolsâ Anarchy in the UK. @Denny @jabel
@odd
Yay @jabel! @odd, yes, the Sex Pistolsâ are what many think of. Young, angry punk rock kids are one of the most visible cultural expressions of anarchism in the past 50 years. But no, I would point you to the writings of Murray Bookchin who was a notable Social Ecologist, anarchist, libertarian municipalist⌠lots of labels that point to different nuanced aspects of anarchism. Murray authored many books about his vision of a society guided by direct democracy, a commune of communes. His vision, described in his later years as libertarian municipalism, emphasized building hyper local institutions of direct democracy that worked at the neighborhood level and federated up to the city level and then to the bio-regional level. His works were actually adopted in the struggle weâve seen in recent years in Rojava and âthe Kurdistan Workersâ Partyâs (PKK) imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ăcalan, who decided to infuse the Kurdish political project with Communalism, popular assemblies, and confederalism. â (quote from link below).
And in the 1930s the Spanish Anarchists formed the core resistance to Franco in the build up to WWII. They built community-based worker collectives and cooperatives that ran some of the towns, cities and farms. When Franco led the army to overthrow the elected democratic government the anarchists defended the government.
In the US the 1800s and 1900s were chock full of anarchist unions, most notably the IWW and the struggle for the 8 hour day was largely populated by anarchists. So much of the cultural history of the US has its roots in the IWW and the more radical, anarchistic side of the labor movement. Then projects like Dorothy Dayâs Houses of Hospitality and the Catholic Workers. Itâs unfortunate (but no accident) that more in the US donât know this side of history. Itâs not in the typical public school history book.
[For more on Bookchin, start here](www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/municipalâŚ
Anything by Bookchin is worth a read. But it can get pretty dense. His primary text is probably The Ecology of Freedom. But it would make sense to start with his introductory texts. I can make a list if youâre interested.
@Denny Have you ever heard Utah Phillipsâ album âWe Have Fed You All a Thousand Yearsâ? Glorious Wobbly songs and stories. Never fails to inspire and move me.
@Denny I would be very interested in a list! Iâve been wanting to learn more about anarchism for a long time now.
@Denny Thanks for an extensive reply! I will go through these resources later, when itâs not early in the morning and I havenât slept. @jabel
@jabel Hells YES I have!! I dearly love that manâs voice and story telling. I find great comfort in all of his work! â¤ď¸â¤ď¸â¤ď¸
He did some fantastic work with Ani DiFranco too. I love those Wobbly songs. I believe there is still an ongoing effort to revive the IWW. Back in the 1990s we had a local branch of the IWW set-up in Memphis. A small group, we met in the context of several other community projects and supported any local union activity when it came up in the area. I left Memphis in 2004 and Iâve not kept up on the IWW in the years since though I think efforts are still ongoing. Iâve got my red card around here somewhere.
@hollie Awesome! Iâll put it together and share tomorrow!
@Denny A card-carrying Wobblyâawesome!
@odd First note: this was a bit of a joke. The firefly looks like it has a little âcircle Aâ.
@Denny @jabel I believe @ayjay has stated he is anarcho-curious (though Iâm sure he didnât word it that way).
I made my second reply to @odd a post
cc: @Denny @jabel @hollie
Yes, âşď¸ I did notice that after a while. Btw: I donât see your first reply to me about anarchism in my Mentions tabâŚđ¤ Thanks for your posts. I will read them when I have good time, because Iâm not going to skim this.
@odd @hollie
Recomended anarchist resources, texts:
Murray Bookchin:
Remaking Society
Toward an ecological society
The Philosophy of Social Ecology
The Modern Crisis
Urbanization Without Cities
Post-Scarcity Anarchism
The Spanish Anarchists
The Politics of Social Ecology-Libertarian Municipalism
The Ecology of Freedom
An excellent summary of Bookchin here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Bookchin#General_sociological_and_psychological_views
A few anarchist texts I have on hand:
The Dawn of Everything David Graeber
No gods no masters Daniel Guerin
Anarchist Voices Paul Avrich
The Anarchist Collectives: Workersâ Self-Management in the Spanish Revolution, 1936â1939 Sam Dolgoff
@jabel
@Denny Iâm intrigued that you consider Dawn of Everything anarchist (and donât mention Wengrow).
Iâd prefer to say it sets out a case for distributed decision making that is not representative democracy and that societies can be remarkably fluid about how they decide on things.
@Denny Also, does Chin refer to the Indian panchayat system, which is representative and hierarchical.
@jeremycherfas Bookchin. Thanks, autocorrect
@jeremycherfas The Dawn of Everything, Iâve not read it yet. Iâve read bits and listened to bits. But I canât comment! Itâs been discussed favorably and recommended by many though. I hope to read it soon.
@jeremycherfas Ha! Yeah, good olâ autocorrect! No, I donât ever recall him mentioning it.
@Denny Thank you Denny! Between Toddâs posts, and yours, it looks like Iâve got resources to last me a long while now. Thank you!
@Denny It is absolutely eye opening. You will enjoy it.
@Ddanielson Right. That the Enlightment view prevailed is perhaps not surprising and a pity nevertheless.
@Denny Thank you! Iâm really looking forward to getting into this!