@toddgrotenhuis Oh, I see it! Side note, I think we may be the only anarchists on micro.blog. Well, I’ll say, you’re the only other I’m aware of. 🤓
@toddgrotenhuis It looks very official for being anarchistic(?) Are there one, (or more), resource(s) that you would recommend for someone who doesn’t understand what anarchism is really about, and how it would solve problems that are solved by today’s society and those that aren’t solved? The only thing that comes to mind is Sex Pistols’ Anarchy in the UK. @Denny @jabel
Yay @jabel! @odd, yes, the Sex Pistols’ 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 we’ve seen in recent years in Rojava and “the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) imprisoned leader, Abdullah Öcalan, who decided to infuse the Kurdish political project with Communalism, popular assemblies, and confederalism. “ (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 Day’s Houses of Hospitality and the Catholic Workers. It’s unfortunate (but no accident) that more in the US don’t know this side of history. It’s not in the typical public school history book.
[For more on Bookchin, start here](www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/municipal…
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 you’re interested.
@Denny Have you ever heard Utah Phillips’ album “We Have Fed You All a Thousand Years”? Glorious Wobbly songs and stories. Never fails to inspire and move me.
@Denny I would be very interested in a list! I’ve 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 it’s not early in the morning and I haven’t slept. @jabel @toddgrotenhuis
@jabel Hells YES I have!! I dearly love that man’s voice and story telling. I find great comfort in all of his work! ❤️❤️❤️
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 I’ve not kept up on the IWW in the years since though I think efforts are still ongoing. I’ve got my red card around here somewhere.
@toddgrotenhuis Yes, ☺️ I did notice that after a while. Btw: I don’t see your first reply to me about anarchism in my Mentions tab…🤔 Thanks for your posts. I will read them when I have good time, because I’m not going to skim this.
Recomended anarchist resources, texts:
Murray Bookchin:
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Remaking Society
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Toward an ecological society
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The Philosophy of Social Ecology
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The Modern Crisis
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Urbanization Without Cities
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Post-Scarcity Anarchism
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The Spanish Anarchists
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The Politics of Social Ecology-Libertarian Municipalism
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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:
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The Dawn of Everything David Graeber
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No gods no masters Daniel Guerin
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Anarchist Voices Paul Avrich
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The Anarchist Collectives: Workers’ Self-Management in the Spanish Revolution, 1936–1939 Sam Dolgoff
@Denny I’m intrigued that you consider Dawn of Everything anarchist (and don’t mention Wengrow).
I’d 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 The Dawn of Everything, I’ve not read it yet. I’ve read bits and listened to bits. But I can’t comment! It’s been discussed favorably and recommended by many though. I hope to read it soon.
@Denny @toddgrotenhuis Thank you Denny! Between Todd’s posts, and yours, it looks like I’ve got resources to last me a long while now. Thank you!
@Ddanielson Right. That the Enlightment view prevailed is perhaps not surprising and a pity nevertheless.