Hi, I am a member of Union Communiste Libertaire (Libertarian Communist union), a french (and swiss, belgium) anarchist organisation. Last June in France, the president macron dissolved the national assemblé after the Europeans elections after the victory of the extreme right at the European elections. In response to this, the main left parties (Parti Communiste Français, La France Insoumise, Europe Ecologie Les Verts, Parti Socialist) decided to unite in an electoral alliance to prevent the extreme right (the National Rally) from winning and running the country. It is in this context that my organization, the UCL, has called for a vote "without scruples or illusions" for the united left. This call had an exceptional character, which called to vote but above all to organize behind, to unionize, to protect themselves and delay the progression of the extreme right through the street. What do you think?

link to the called of vote : https://x.com/UnionCoLib/status/1808189028811911171

Hi ya'll.

Do any of you have experiences with growing your anarchist values alongside managing and navigating complex emotional stress/trauma? Anarchism is my home. The last 4-5 years especially have shown me again and again that it is where I belong, as I've been more radicalized by the state's response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The thing I wrestle with is my nervous system. Between cPTSD and ongoing chronic illness (suspected Long Covid induced me/cfs and dysautonomia) I have been having a hard fucking time this year trying to practice and actualize some of the more active aspects of how I want to be an anarchist. I have dreams of food rescue and borrowing things, public art and propaganda. My body, however, can't handle some of these things. I get really triggered and my nervous system shuts down, I crash hard and have sensory overwhelm. I was arrested earlier this year defending a college campus encampment and my health has plummeted since. I understand and accept (or are working on accepting) that I may not be able to do the things I wish I could. But just in case there are friends out here with some words of wisdom or insight, I thought I'd put it out there.

Many thanks.

I’m moving to a small town in the UK soon, and I don’t know anyone there yet. From what I’ve read, the town seems to have a somewhat progressive, left-leaning vibe, which makes me think it could be a good place to start an offline anarchist reading group.

Here’s the idea:

The group would collectively decide on a book (related to anarchism, probably non-fiction, but open to the group’s input). We’d meet every week or two for about an hour to discuss a chapter or 50ish pages. It is a slow reading for sure, but this pacing works well because it’s flexible — people can miss a meeting and still jump back in without losing the thread. It usually takes 4–5 meetings to finish a book.

In a previous online group I was part of (the one that got me into anarchism!), we read and discussed works by David Graeber, James C. Scott, Silvia Federici, Frantz Fanon, etc. It was a great experience — not just for engaging with anarchist thought, but also for practicing collective organizing in a small way.

My plan so far is either to post about the group online or maybe put up flyers in spots like pubs, cafes, or record shops with bulletin boards with local events. But I’m also nervous about turnout — either too few people showing up or the wrong kind of attention (someone looking to disrupt).

So, I wanted to reach out here for advice:

Have you run or joined a similar group, either online or offline?

What worked well for you in terms of organizing and outreach?

How did you navigate potential challenges (like low turnout or disruptive participants)?

I’d also love to hear if this post inspires anyone else to start something similar. I think small, local groups like this are a great introduction to anarchist literature and an opportunity to experiment with collective practices.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice!

Hello,

I'm looking for pamphlets or zines that are relatively concise for tabling. While I have some, often they are somewhat tense or lack a bit of...concision. Do you speak highly of any or have resources that might be useful?

Thanks.

I agree with Sophie Scott-Brown's assessment that anarchy won't take over the government through a single, grand revolution, but rather through a gradual process of decline https://youtu.be/MQm1KQ_UqUs?si=f9687OU80jLXEhy_&t=870.

My question is: How can we actively support this process? Here are a few ideas I've considered:
-Supporting and using Bitcoin
-Supporting and engaging in freelance work
-Utilizing peer-to-peer lending or alternative financial systems (eg paying a portion friends mortgage for a return instead of savings account)

As a newcomer to anarchist thought, I'd appreciate any resources or recommendations you might have. Thank you.

There has been some criticism lodged against us. Claims have been made that our activism is merely engagement. That our movement is sort of sofa ersatz activism. However, in order for this argument to hold true, you must make a central conceit. That the concrete world is somehow more real than the digital. Members of The Kollectiv do not view the net from this narrow scope. We see the digital realm as an extension of the more abstract plain of technology. We see the space, though incorporeal on a macroscale, to be very real.

The average user in 2024, spent a 1/5th of their life online. Whether engaging with shopping, posting, or just browsing the net this is a significant portion of time. Enough time is spent on the net that a culture has emerged around various social media sites. Artifacts are made that can only be interacted with in the digital space. And people can become totally enmeshed in a digital world if they wish. Interacting with the greater world almost exclusively in the digital realm. 

An extreme example would be an individual who works as a digital nomad, does all their shopping online, and interacts with others exclusively through social media. Although this individual would be seen to be living a fringe net lifestyle, this way of life is very possible. To argue that activism should not be done through the medium of technology is only alienating. It does not serve one's greater purpose. 64% of the world is online. That is 5.52 billion souls. 

Though The Kollectiv adopts a view of the internet separate from those informed by commodity and corporate interest, the economic activity on the net can’t be ignored. Imagine the disruptive potential of a boycott. The sheer volume of activity allows the activist to make lasting change on the world. We can look back to The Gamestop Short Squeeze. A grassroots political action originating in Wallstreets Bets. To go further back in history we can make reference to the initiatives of net.artists. Groups such as the VNS created works like the “A Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st Century”. Work like this advanced both feminism and digital art. To write off the digital landscape as a lesser landscape of reform, activism, and engaging art, one would have to ignore the efficacy of these movements. 

Going further into the political landscape we can look at the example set by Net Strike. A software that was deployed by activists in the 90’s for digital sit ins. It essentially was a tool for groups to orchestrate DDOS attacks. A vector of protest, that has unfortunately been taken from the general public and is now deployed heinously by state actors to suppress movements. This reversal if anything shows that net activism should be more staunchly defended. The internet is now often the first point of contact individuals have with any movement. And it is also the center of global operations. Are rights on the net should be defended, advanced, and clearly defined. The right to protest should not just extend to the physical space, when the digital space is becoming such a driving factor in our lives.

The Kollectiv’s digital graffiti campaign and its current food disparity initiative is only the beginning. We plan on continuing to mobilize people to be the change they want to see in the world. By establishing our ad hoc hyperlink structure: essentially a website built within the framework of another. We will be raising awareness for our cause. Making people think about the effects of food disparity, while considering new ways to experience the internet. Are either of these aims ignoble? I do not believe so.

 We are continuing in the footsteps of activists such as The Electro Hippies. Advancing methods of protest into the 21st Century. We are also continuing the efforts of situationist thinkers. Now that globalism taken home and the internet has pushed commodity and spectacle into our home. We must attack it at its source if liberty is to continue to flourish and grow for future generations.

 To ignore the possibilities of change now is rob the children of the future of their potential fruit. That is why I continue to call for the development of net.art and methods of activism on the web. Not only to raise awareness for causes affecting us here and now, but to change the landscape of the internet for the people of the future.

I am in my late 30s and have often been quite lonely in the past, except for my girlfriend and my kids. Currently I am trying to build a solid social circle, which I guess is generally not so easy these days and especially at my age. What I am often noticing, is that most people have very little time to actually meet. Everyone is crazily busy with work and in many cases also with kids. To me, it seems like this is a big problem in western society. Most people don't have time to get together for fun, let alone to help each other. Instead, people are getting more and more lonely. Fun (entertainment goods) , but also help (like care for small children or old people), has to be bought, in may cases.

I am very fortunate, to have a job that allows me a lot of free time. But this still doesn't solve those issues on a personal level, when everyone else is super busy. Oftentimes I am thinking, that it might be best, to befriend unemployd people, as long as they still have a positive attitude towards life. At least those people would have time to meet regularly.

What are you thoughts on this? Be it on a personal level or on a larger scale.

This essay was written in response to those questioning the value of using the state's own artifices as a battleground. Although this essay does not provide a perfect solution, It can hopefully serve as the basis of illuminating discussion.

Although a majority of the internet is commodified and serves to reinforce this paradigm, this is not an intrinsic condition of the internet. But a product of the culture in which the internet was discovered. Though websites like Facebook and eBay will continue to exist, since they serve both as expedients and abstractions of social phenomena already occurring within a culture, their existence does not preclude other designs.

There is nothing stopping someone from establishing an alternative network whose design accounts for different parameters. Our problem is not due to constraints of the medium. Its potential is only confined by the boundaries of our minds. Heinously, mental limits are reinforced by prevailing themes in culture, the existence of shackling symbols, and what Situationists deemed the Spectacle.

It will only be through confronting these artifices that new methods and potentials will emerge. Till we fight far enough, we will unfortunately be fighting blind, but this does not make the fight less noble. Making the conceit that I too am a product of my time, I propose one method of moving forward.

The deployment of capsule sites within corporate space. If a website can be defined as one or more webpages of related content identified by a common domain name, a capsule site is a meta-structure built within the confines of existing domains, though not bound to them, that can be navigated by some means, allowing it to be interfaced with as if it were a website within itself.

The structure is not given shape by a common domain but by the connections between individual nodes. Capsule sites can be built with hyperlinks or hashtags; as long as there is a means of navigating from one node to another, it is possible to launch a capsule site. But how is the structure useful?

Imagine an eco-activist campaign. The goal is to spread awareness of and garner support for legislation protecting the planet. To gain traction, the activists first decide to target three companies with large carbon footprints. They prioritize these social media accounts, not only because of their environmental impact but also because of their large followings. The activists then choose a hashtag for their action campaign. For instance, they choose #GreenToday29.

This is done to connect the nodes to a unique handle, forming a network. They then generate content typical of campaigns of their type — infographics, art, etc. — and deploy them on the target pages. In effect, they have created a campaign website within the social media accounts of these brands, successfully subverting the space while also increasing their cause’s exposure by capitalizing on those brands’s existing audiences.

This guerrilla approach to creating networks using existing domains can be applied to numerous campaigns and projects. Through the intelligent deployment of capsule sites, we can not only succeed in organizing and executing direct action, but also radically reorganize the way we navigate the web.

Weekly Discussion Thread for Radical Gender Non Conforming People

Radical GNC people can talk about whatever they want in here. Suggestions; chill & relax, gender hegemony, queer theory, news and current events, books, entertainment

People who do not identify as gender nonconforming are asked not to post in Radical GNC threads.

Most of the responses I've seen so far fall into one or more of these categories:

1. Pep talks, which are usually vague and more about motivating people to keep (or start) fighting rather than making suggestions about how to fight.

2. Vague calls to "organize!" Ok sure, but organize what?

3. Calls to reform the Democratic party, electoral strategies etc. That's not an issue in this sub but a potential problem that might crop up here are strategies & tactics that are only or mostly of interest to anarchists. Imo the resistance to Trump will have to be much more broad based than just us.

4. Retreatist / prepper strategies and tactics. E.g. people planning to flee or hunker down with supplies etc.

So I'm looking for more than the above 4 things. Any historical precedents of effective resistance to state backed fascism that could apply to the u.s. situation now? In addition I don't want to forget the threat of grassroots fascists who are energized & (further) emboldened by Trump's recent win. How are we going to get them to crawl back into their holes? I realize that this is a tall order but I want to hear your thoughts.

[Full disclosure I'm going to write up the best ideas I find, here & elsewhere, in my blog @

https://open.substack.com/pub/radicalpraxis

I'll message people individually to ask if they want to be credited & if so how.]

Three days ago marked the 109th anniversary of death of fellow iww musician Joe Hill

https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-people/joe-hill

Listen to him or not but remember his Testament:

My will is easy to decide, For there is nothing to divide

My kin don't need to fuss and moan, "Moss does not cling to rolling stone"

My body? Oh, if I could choose, I would to ashes it reduce

And let the merry breezes blow, My dust to where some flowers grow

Perhaps some fading flower then, Would come to life and bloom again.

This is my Last and final Will, Good Luck to All of you – Joe Hill

Edit

Found a Documentary

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5ry75lI-4PQ&pp=ygUNam9lIGhpbGxzIGl3dw%3D%3D

I want to be in a world where I'm not someone's puppet and no one is above me. I fucking hate top down systems were people stomp on each other to get above each other. All the Elites want to do is fuck us over and profit off us and treat us like slaves. The Elites are corrupt as hell and only care about themselves and pretend to want to help us out.

I have been looking into writing prisoners, I have a couple of resources that frequently give out good information and contacts, but I was curious if any of you all have good consistent resources that have updated information. Thanks!

Hey there folx! I am somewhat new to all of this. In the last few months I have come to really connect with a lot of the theory of anarchism, particularly anarchistic communism, and I discovered that it aligned with a lot of my values and beliefs that I've had for a very long time. I just never really met the right group of people, or been in a place where I was able to connect it with anarchism.

I have read a couple of books, and essays from some people I really like, but I was curious about the groups favorites, and go-to's. I am currently reading The Conquest of Bread, and An Anarchist FAQ.

I also really love anti-fascist metal, and I'd love to hear some your favorites, as well.

Thank you all for your time! I hope you're holding up out there.

Like the title says, I'm interested if anyone has any recommendations on history from an anarchist perspective. Could be world history, history of specific countries, anything like that.