I consider myself an anarcho-communist, while also believing strongly in council communism. some argue councilcom is a form of anarchy while others label it as just a leftcom ideal. Personally I believe that councilcom is the best form of communism that eventually leads to anarchy.

Heyo

I want to distribute some kind of propaganda piece to help people build an emotional relationship and narrative around anarchism. For me in particular The Dispossessed has stuck with me more than any piece of theory I’ve seen. The book showed me not just a romanticized resistance but an explicit anarchist society in all its flaws and joys. That narrative is what has motivated me for all the years since.

I want to distro something that is able to be that for others. Distroing the whole book isn’t the best sell I think, a lot of people have trouble reading, so something within reasonable print range (10-15pp or so) would be accessible and affordable to produce.

I know I can work on this myself, but I don’t really write fiction anymore. So if someone else has already done this I wanna just distro their work.

Specifically I am looking for something that isn’t just romanticizing resistance, I want people to get a peak at a better world, what we’re actually building and striving for. The dream that keeps you warm when it’s cold and hard.

I figure a comic would be the most ideal, but any short fiction would work. Maybe I could even work on adapting an existing piece to a short comics

Tangentially related, do y’all have any stories or media that shows an anarchist world you believe in? Regardless of if they’re reasonable to distro.

I organized an AMA/Q&A with James McTeigue, director of V for Vendetta, starring Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Fry, John Hurt, and Stephen Rea. It's being re-released in theaters next week for its 20th anniversary.

The AMA post is live here now in r/movies for anyone interested in asking a question:

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1xgs5hm/remember_remember_the_5th_of_november_hi_reddit/

He will be back at 3 PM ET today to answer questions. I recommend asking in advance. Please ask there, not here. All questions are much appreciated!

Re-release trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iW3f4Xu3Zw

Synopsis: In a world in which Great Britain has become a fascist state, a masked vigilante known only as “V” conducts guerrilla warfare against the oppressive British government. When V rescues a young woman from the secret police, he finds in her an ally with whom he can continue his fight to free the people of Britain.

Thank you :)

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Hello do you know something about this ?

We were recently alerted to a problem with the mod log links in the sidebar where the websites had been rehosted into some crypto thing.

user ziq alerted me to a fix, which I installed: https://developers.reddit.com/apps/public-mod-log

The app appears to be available in new reddit, and it only started collecting data so, it may not have much yet, but it should be good now, same for meta.

Once the most wanted woman in the U.S.S.R., the orphaned bottle worker and bandit turned anarchist militant Maria "Marusha" Nikiforova was founder of and tactician for the anarchist Black Army. After a period in Paris and Barcelona getting gender affirming care and robbing banks, Maria returned to Russia on the brink of revolution. In a time when even in far left circles women were often relegated to the sidelines, Maria refused these limitations and rose to achieve great respect and loyalty both from her comrades and the Ukranian people at large, and great contempt from Bolsheviks, nationalists, and capitalists. Mobilizing a volunteer army from a mix of anarchists and disaffected workers, Maria and her comrades lived collectively together in a caravan travelling the Ukranian countryside and redistributing wealth and arms from the rich and the police to the poor and working class people in each town they passed through. What began as a ragtag group of horses and derelict wagons, later moved onto an armored train they seized. Riding the snow covered valleys of Western Ukraine, they sent fear into the hearts of the bourgeoisie and governments of each town they passed through. Marusya was arrested many times by both the nationalists and Bolsheviks, and on more than one occasion people successfully stormed local jails to release her. In 1919, she was finally executed by the White Army who feared her escaping yet again. Though she had been a mentor and inspiration to Nestor Makhno, because she died in the war and undoubtedly because she was a woman, she was largely forgotten. Her caricature would go on to be used by the Bolsheviks to smear anarchists as greedy, power seeking bandits; though in practice she was neither; she was someone who lived and died altruistically and uncompromisingly opposed to hierarchy.

According to the news from Brazil, Bolsonaro lost his re election bid to Lula, who I’m hearing referred to as the “left wing” candidate. Here in the US, election season is in full swing with candidates making their last minute cases. So obviously elections have been on my mind lately.

I recently reread “Voting is Not Harm Reduction” and I felt a sense of invigoration as it reminded me salvation does not flow from the state, but from each of us working together. As the saying goes, only we save us. That said, I’ve gotten some vitriolic pushback on talking about the issues with voting (not on here, mind you). I understand people in the US are rightly concerned with the continuing march of fascism but serious times require serious discussions, including recognizing the limitations of voting as a means to change.

Normally this doesn’t bug me much, libs gonna lib, after all. Anarchism isn’t exactly the most popular political philosophy so I expect pushback. What annoys me is the implication that I am critical of voting because I hate marginalized communities and value my own self-righteousness over protecting vulnerable people. If you try to point out that liberal politicians have a dismal track record when it comes to capitulating to fascism, you get hit with the “this isn’t the time” or “we’ll push them further left after they’re in office.” Wasn’t that supposed to be the plan with Biden? Worked real great there…

I apologize for ranting here, sometimes I just get frustrated with people for refusing to even entertain a better way.

I'm in urban planning and I want to figure out how I can better employ anarchist methods and ideals in my practice, whether paid or unpaid, government supported or not.

inb4 anarchism and urban planning are inherently conflicting, and power will always be most unequally distributed in cities, helped along by strong states, and anarchism can only be maintained in rural/small/off-grid communities.

What first got me interested in studying urban planning was James C. Scott, as of "Seeing like a State - How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed", "The art of not being governed", "Weapons of the weak", "Against the grain"...

But though these readings do include some recommendations for planners, they mostly just speak against planning. But I wanna influence urban planning and the shape of cities. I lean materialist, and I believe one of the biggest opportunities for impact is in shaping cities and the built environment.

I have recently obtained a degree in urban planning. But I still feel woefully unequipped to yield it for my anarchist, materialist proclivities.

I know that what we call "the third sector" (and social enterprises) can be interpreted as leaning anarchist, as it - almost by definition - involves strong, informal, non profit, local communities.

I know that the third sector tends to exist in "third places". While third spaces can also be managed by private, for profit enterprises, ie. the second sector, the highest functioning third places tend to have very narrow profit margins, and are effectively run as non profits.

I know that these places function best when they're relatively central and accessible, and exist along desire paths between other everyday destinations, so that they don't demand detours and deliberate planning by the occupants.

And yet I know that these places often get relatively remote shit locations because they, because of their lean business model, can't pay much rent. I don't know how to solve that. I'm somewhat intrigued by the thought of occupying empty central offices and appropriating them as third spaces, while demanding that the non profits get special permission or that rent just shouldn't be that damn high, at least not for non profits.

Apart from that... heck, I feel like I'm fumbling. I worry that somehow my ambitions are just profoundly misguided.

Does anyone have any tips?

It should be stated that obviously what's realistic or even attractive depends on the size of the city. I'll take advice on cities of any size.

Thanks

Premise 1: Everybody has a legitimate claim to have political power over that which affects them.

Premise 2: The modern state, via their chosen representatives of a central power, impose majority rule unjustly upon those who don't consent to being governed.

Conclusion: By participating in choosing a representative, you're using the lack of a legitimate political power that the people should have as a means to your own ends. In other words, if the people were truly free, you wouldn't be able to choose who can or cannot govern them and by voting you're using their lack of freedom to pursue your own political goals.

Notice that my argument doesn't depend on the idea of every representative being equally bad for the people or whether voting is useful or not. My argument is based on the illegitimacy of using the power of the state in any way as a means of anarchist political praxis, prior to considerations based on outcomes.

Getting ahead of some responses, I don't believe that voting can be justified through self-defense. This is because most (or at least many) of the people being affected by the representative you vote for are not the oppressors in any sense, so their claim of their liberty being respected prevails and is prior to any objective you may accomplish through voting.

It is also not legitimate to say that their freedom would've been taken from either way, because that doesn't change the morality of your action. When participating in representative democracy, you're using the system for your own goals, and taking advantage of the fact that the people are being oppressed by being governed. And even though that doesn't change the reality of the people being oppressed or not, in one case you use their oppression for your own political goals and in the other you do not.

I don't mean to convince any person who thinks voting is a legitimate and effective way of changing people's lives, although I may doubt if these people are really anarchists. My argument is really directed to the people who think that voting is a very small complement to a much more important anarchist praxis. This is because, if one admits that voting makes such a small difference compared to other activities, one may be more open to the argument I gave to not vote, since the moral cost of doing so is very high on a principled stance.

I hope you found the read interesting, I'm open to discussion in the comments :)

Photograph taken today by Aurélien Morissard, from the AFP, documenting Macron's visit to the Marseille Town Hall, which we seized on the 17 October. I feel the picture is very telling and also a good use for propaganda and historical reasons, so I share it.

Best,

What you are reading, watching, or listening to? Or how far have you gotten in your chosen selection since last week?

Hi everyone, I'm Judas.

I hope this post is ok. I wanted to introduce myself and hopefully make some like-minded contacts as I'm feeling a bit like no-one at all gets me or has any desire whatsoever to try to recently.

I'm 41, white, cis-male, homoflexible dog-dad and I'm based in Warwickshire, UK. I have discovered through considerable experience that my political beliefs have radically outgrown the political sham we're all expected to participate in.

I'm anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, passionate about human rights, and a firm believer in mutual aid and community-led change. I'm still exploring anarchism fully, but the more I learn, the more I recognise ideas I've already been trying to put into practice for years. I just didn't realise that it was what it was, if that makes sense?

In 2022, I founded a grassroots LGBT+ & local community organisation that grew to around 70 members. We successfully supported people seeking asylum, challenged discrimination, questioned local authorities and politicians, contributed to local press coverage, and successfully challenged council campaigns, including securing the removal of signage unfairly targeting young people.

That probably sounds rather impressive. The less glamorous reality is that an awful lot of it has been one bloke, a laptop, an unreasonable number of emails and a Jack Russell (photo attached for hopefully the benefit of cute-canine-clout) who contributes absolutely nothing administratively. This is especially true as the group began to really get up the noses of the local authorities, community influences such as the church, the fed and the wider institutions including the local M.P who actively hates me - which I'm THRILLED about of course. One of my greatest personal achievements; even if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, the smear campaign was real and it drove a lot of members out and set running scared.

So, frankly, I'm exhausted.

I live with degrees of diagnosed PTSD, depression and anxiety, which can make consistency and everyday functioning really quite difficult. Some days I can challenge and shake up an entire institution a bit. Other days I struggle to answer a damn text message.

I've spent years trying to create community for other people, yet somehow ended up feeling profoundly lonely myself. There's a certain irony in that which isn't entirely lost on me.

I'm not looking for sympathy or someone to rescue me. I'd just truly love to connect with people who share my values, whether that's through friendship, mutual aid, anti-political discussion or even practical organising.

Outside of the activism, I'm a theatre obsessive, writer, voracious consumer of memoirs and psychology books, and someone whose brain insists on turning practically every conversation into a fucking musical.

I'd particularly love to meet people around Warwickshire/Leicestershire/ Northamptonshire or generally the Midlands, although I'm equally happy connecting further afield of course.

I'm curious how others here handle their calling to activism and connect with others who may have built sustainable, genuinely supportive communities and not completely burnt themselves out in the process.

Because right now I still continue to believe wholeheartedly in collective action. I'm just beginning to realise that the collective part is rather important. And "no man is an island."

Hope to connect soon,

Jude

Hi everyone,
I would like to ask recommendation on some must read books about anarchism but also some new "wave" of thinkers orr books not directly about anarchism but that are, in your opinion, really interesting to develop a new way of thinking/seeing political and social matters.
Thanks!

Socjalny Kongres Kobiet is a grassroots, independent initiative in Poland that brings together trade unionists, tenant activists, caregivers, students, and journalists. Unlike traditional mainstream women's congresses, it focuses on working-class issues, labor rights, and economic inequality from a feminist perspective

https://www.instagram.com/socjalny_kongres_kobiet/

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1847830109995000