Hey Everyone! A fellow Anarchist and myself are forming an anarchist book club and I have a question for you all. We’ve complied a list of items and are curious on what order we should read them in. We have a few people who know nothing of anarchism coming to the meeting so we suggested the You May Already Be Done by Graeber to have read ahead of time and we will read same title by Slow Burning Fuse at the meeting.

I’ve provided some screenshots of the our list. Currently have them sorted by category of What is anarchism, state-ism, power analysis, and anthropology.

Anarchy: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/
library/errico-malatesta-anarchy

Anarchy Works: https://
theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-anarchy-works

Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology:
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-fragments-of-an-anarchist-anthropology

Anarchism: What it really stands for(First Chapter of Anarchism and other Essays):
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-anarchism-and-other-essays

Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists: https://libcom.org/article/ organisational-platform-general-union-anarchists-draft

Synthesis Anarchism in a Nutshell: https:// theanarchistlibrary.org/library/jonathan-
eibisch-the-anarchist-synthesis-in-a-nutshell

Fighting for Ourselves: Anarcho-Syndicalism and the Class Struggle: https:// files.libcom.org/files/
Fighting%20For%20Ourselves.pdf

Especifismo: the Anarchist Praxis of South America: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/
library/adam-weaver-especifismo

Black Anarchism: A New Paradigm: https:// theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ashanti-
omowali-alston-black-anarchism

The Anarchafeminist Manifesto: https:// theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anonymous-
anarchafeminist-manifesto

Towards the Queerest Insurrection: https:// theanarchistlibrary.org/library/mary-nardini-
gang-toward-the-queerest-insurrection

Towards an Anarchist Ecology: https:// theanarchistlibrary.org/library/knowing-the-
land-is-resistance-towards-an-anarchist-
ecology

Other Intersectional Anarchism(Latino, Asian, Indigenous, and Religious): https:// theanarchistlibrary.org/library/chuck-morse-
latin-american-anarchism, https://
theanarchistlibrary.org/library/liao-the-basis-preliminary-examination-for-a-theory-of-asian-anarchism, https://
theanarchistlibrary.org/library/klee-benally-ya-iishjaashch-ili-unknowable-against-an-indigenous-anarchist-theory, https:// theanarchistlibrary.org/library/kevin-
daugherty-a-short-history-of-religious-
anarchism

Common Question about Police and Prison Abolition and Responses: https://
theanarchistlibrary.org/library/dean-spade-common-question-about-police-and-prison-abolition-and-responses

Are Prisons Obsolete?: https://
nattsvartverkstad.noblogs.org/files/2023/11/ angela-y-davis-are-prisons-obsolete.pdf

Anarchists, the War and Their Principles:
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/errico-malatesta-anarchists-the-war-and-their-
principles

War is the Health of the State: https:// www.marxists.org/archive/bourne/1918/war-is-
the-health-of-the-state.html

The Iron Fist Behind The Invisible Hand(Warning: Kevin Carson is a
Mutualist(Anarchists who supports Free-Markets but not Capitalism), not a Social Anarchist however his talk on Imperialism and how it functions is still important): https:// theanarchistlibrary.org/library/kevin-carson-
the-iron-fist-behind-the-invisible-hand

The Principles of Anarchist Sexual Freedom:
https://anarchistnews.org/content/principles-anarchist-sexual-freedom

War is a Racket: https://
www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/
warracket.html

Our Enemies in Blue: https://
theanarchistlibrary.org/library/kristian-williams-our-enemies-in-blue

My friend asked me how will an anarchist society deal with a foreign invasion, I told him about anihilism. But it made me wonder how other anarchist ideologies approach this, of course there is Makhnos Platfomism but are there any other systems?

Are there any anarchists and their organizations in Armenia, or more precisely in Yerevan?

A good video about common mistakes horizontalists make when starting out.

EDIT: Some people in the comments have completely missed the point and it's making me sad that they call this ragebait, when this I feel should be common sense. I didn't say: the government would never lie to us. I said that as an anarchist, I would be against governments no matter if they do all these terrible things or not. We have an example of what conspiracy theories do: QAnon. If you want something similar happening within anarchist movements, go on. Also, your attacks on scientific skepticism are just disturbing. Scientific research lead to scientific theories which are the highest level of scientific certainty there is. And thanks to those agreeing with me.

I've seen several creators who are supposedly 'left-wing' (≠ liberal/Democrat) who mistrust scientists and call scientific skeptics 'NPCs', often bringing up conspiracy theories such as that the moon landing was faked because NASA is a US government agency.

Let me make myself clear: I don't like the government, I don't like having states and I don't like capitalism. I'm a dictionary-definition anarchist. However, I don't think we need spreading conspiracy theories without evidence in order to support our point that the government apparatus is a bad thing. In other words, a Masonic cabal controlling the world doesn't have to exist in order for the capitalist system to be terrible. They don't have to poison us with fluoride for us to be anarchists and dislike the state.

In conclusion, if you're a tin-foil hat conspiracy theorist that thinks that the moon landing was fake just because NASA is a government agency (and thus delegitimise all the WORKING class scientists that are working there), you are not left-wing. The Illuminati don't exist and neither do they need to, but we can still hold the rulers responsible for all their proven actions.

Have a mutual aid project you'd like to promote? In need of some aid yourself? Let us know.

^{Please note that r/Anarchism moderators cannot individually verify or vet mutual aid requests}

(posted in /r/Anarchy101 this morn, apologies if you see this twice)

hi all,

ive recently exited a 5 year relationship in which I was frequently sexually assaulted the entire time. both parties are trans, with me being a trans man and her being a trans woman.

i am safe and in therapy and living alone, but i am also severely disabled and now that shes gone the only people i talk to in person are paid carers. this has been pretty isolating and meant I haven't had many peers to bounce my thoughts off of.

ive been reading a lot about sexual assault, about how it happens and how victims/survivors should be treated and how we should have agency and autonomy over the aftermath, disclosure, legal/carceral proceedings, etc.

due to my own principles and the fact we are both trans and disabled ive decided not to report my ex partner to the cops. this was an easy choice i am firm about.

however i am curious as to my obligations to community more broadly. the sexual assault resources ive been reading centre the victim/survivor's autonomy and state that they never have to disclose for any reason, and that the hypothetical safety of community or potential future victims should not be on your shoulders.

i am interested to hear from more learned anarchists than myself on this. my abuser frequents queer sex/hookup events and i find myself worrying that she might treat future people like she treated me. i however, due to being bedbound have no connection to these events and don't know anyone else there.

I would hate to put the emotional work into disclosure just to be immediately dismissed as a shit stirrer or transmisogynist due to not being a recognisable member of community there. or worse, to have it backfire and look like someone was attacking/abusing her instead.

any readings or resources on the topic also pls share, I would be very keen to read more on this.

Originally posted this to a group about punk music but figured peaple here might be able to help more

I have an old friend, white cishet ablebodied dude with a comfortable job (I’m 30NB/F). In our early 20s, we both identified as left wing/communist, he still describes himself as that. We’ve grown apart in other ways, but I have also just felt very disappointed watching how differently we navigate this moment in history. He is the most privileged friend I have, and yet it’s my racialised/disabled/queer/migrant/precarised friends putting their bodies on the line for others, redistributing their salaries, frantically figuring out what we could do to protect each other, caring. It’s my burnt-out friends getting my legal fund together when I get arrested, he’s nowhere to be found, just sends a sad emoji. He technically holds the same beliefs on Palestine, state repression, queer rights etc. but just sits on a very high horse and doesn’t actually live them out in any way.

How could I gently invite him in? I believe shame just pushes people away instead of motivating. We live in different cities so inviting him to come along to things isn’t an option, but wondering if anyone has ideas!

Hi, I'm interested in watching the nine lives of Nestor makhno mini-series, since I'm really interested in him as a character/person. I saw some posts from 6 to 7 years ago about the series getting subtitled on YouTube, but it seems like it's no longer there anymore, I was hoping to ask if anyone have them downloaded or something? Like on a Google drive maybe? Lmk if you do.

In a personal sense, if you identify as an anarchist, what does Anarchy mean to you?

What is the relationship between Anarchy and anarchism as you understand it?

If you believe that Anarchy is possible then what do you believe will be the path to achieving it?

Source

Looking for some good ideas for a pride parade that has become a corporate capitalist event. Good slogans etc. Looking for ideas.

Does it follow that I reject all authority? Far from me such a thought. In the matter of boots, I refer to the authority of the bootmaker; concerning houses, canals, or railroads, I consult that of the architect or the engineer. For such or such special knowledge I apply to such or such a savant. But I allow neither the bootmaker nor the architect nor savant to impose his authority upon me. I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and censure.

— Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State, 1882

I think most, including myself, are quite fond of this argument. There's such a thing as influence between individuals. Another way I like to explain this is The Ambulance Desert Community. An ambulance is driving through a desert. It has a medic who can't drive and a driver who can't perform first aid. The driver has faith that, if the driver had a heart attack, the medic would know what to do and resuscitate them, and conversely, the medic has faith that the driver knows how to get them out of the desert. There is a sense in which both have power over the other, but it is voluntary. They are already an anarchic community of two.

However, as I am writing about revolution, there is an inevitable romantic image that comes to mind for me. A kind of human being who, flung back into the stone age, can rebuild to our current level of comfort. Someone who can start from actual scratch It's a romantic image that many entertain, even if most people, myself included, doubt is possible.

But if we entertain the existence of such a person or being, I think this would have certain implications of a power imbalance. Everyone would want them to tell everyone else what to do, after all. They are supposed to know better than anyone else.

I will call this Bakunin's Demon, in reference to the (false) belief in a being with perfect knowledge and grit, having a unique power imbalance over who don't share that knowledge and grit.

We have to ask what a comparatively unskilled population can afford to think, if they think that Bakunin's Demon would be able to diagnose, propose solutions and take actions that are simply always better than what they can do. They are, essentially, at the mercy of Bakunin's Demon, even if it's the rational choice. At this point, the distinction between imposition and voluntarism would become blurred. Why would an individual person not follow the advice of Bakunin's Demon?

While this would never happen, this ends up describing how people approach many circumstances under existing systems. They imagine the system as a force who knows better, faster and more than they, and therefore, they make certain rational decisions to 'voluntarily' follow it's expectations. All the while feeling no imposition at all.

This imagination of voluntary submission to Bakunin's Demon and the confusion between voluntarism and imposition I call 'metonymic violence'—where systems are deferred to as if they were superhuman intelligences.

What do you think?

Have you ever seen it?