I am a new anarchist
Apr 2 2009 14:57
I am a new anarchist does anyone have any infomation on what i can do?, where i can go?, how i can be an anarchist? Any info would be very helpful thanks.
Apr 29 2009 08:29
#2
The Anarchist Federation site is a good start too:
Apr 29 2009 09:14
#3
ff87, whereabouts are you? I'd suggest getting involved with groups locally, getting a feel for what they do and what they're about, etc., before committing to any one organisation.
Apr 29 2009 10:06
#4
Demanding the impossible by Peter Marshall is a good book which gives a wide history of anarchism and what possible influenced the idea.
Apr 29 2009 11:30
#5
Actually, it isn't. A book that includes Thatcher as a libertarian???!!! You'd be far better off witth Anarchism by Daniel Guerin, which despite its faults, explains class struggle anarchism pretty well. Or some of the AF pamphlets!!
Apr 29 2009 17:06
#6
Battlescarred wrote:
Actually, it isn't. A book that includes Thatcher as a libertarian???!!! You'd be far better off witth Anarchism by Daniel Guerin, which despite its faults, explains class struggle anarchism pretty well. Or some of the AF pamphlets!!
Are you talking about Margaret Thatcher?...oh dear! I have not came to that part of the book yet! half way through it. Im not much of ana expert at book reviewing but its pretty interesting to me anyway.
Apr 29 2009 18:30
#7
At the Cafe: Conversations on Anarchism. by Malatesta
“For the first time in English, Malatesta, in his usual commonsense and matter-of-fact style, sets out and critically analyses the arguments for and against anarchism.”
What Is Communist Anarchism? by Alexander Berkman
“In a clear, easily understandable conversation with the reader, Berkman discusses the major details of Anarchist thought”
Apr 30 2009 11:47
#8
Anarchy by Malatesta should be your starting point. As succinct as the day it was written.
Apr 30 2009 12:35
#9
But wait, isn't malatesta shit, yes he is.
Apr 30 2009 13:36
#10
You'd be shit too if your name meant "headache."
Apr 30 2009 14:07
#11
Weeler, if you ask for a question, you should wait for a response.
Slovenly beast.
Apr 30 2009 14:48
#12
I just got so excited when I realised I knew the answer!
Apr 30 2009 16:18
#13
You are incorrect in any case.
Apr 30 2009 21:56
#14
weeler wrote:
But wait, isn't malatesta shit, yes he is.
Why/how? Life and ideas is pretty good imo.
May 1 2009 20:06
#15
There are many tributaries to the river of anarchist thought.
In England the place to begin is Wm Godwin's Political Justice. He was forced to recant much of it, but the critique holds true.
Read PJ Proudhon, the Property is Theft! man
Michael Bakunin, esp. his anti=Marx material
Alexander Berkman, whose major work, Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist, written after he was jailed for a failed attempt to assassinate Frick, the financeer. It caused some prison reforms to be enacted.
If you can find copies of his (Berkman's) newspaper on line, it was called The Blast.
Rudolf Rocker, esp. on anarchosyndicalism.
The Individualist tendency: Max Stirner, The Ego and It's Own. Benjamin Tucker and Josiah Warren in the US. Warren's experiment with what he called a 'Time Store' is an early attempt to change the relationship of labor and profit. They were both quite prolific.
Thoreau's essay, which states that, that government is best which governs not at all.
A wonderful out of print SciFi novel by Eric Frank Russell, The Great Explosion.
The writings of Kropotkin, especially Mutual Aid. He is the father of scientific Anarchism, the social science which studies Authority, rejects the dialectic, and relies on the scientific inductive-deductive model.
A quick overlook by one group is at: www.anarchy.no/anarchism.html
Nestor Makhno's writings. He led an Anarchist uprising in the Ukraine during the Revolution and Civil War. Defeated the White Army, the Army of Interention and Trotsky's Red Army. the definitive work on the movement is Arshinov's History of the Makhnovist Movement.
I could go on. but there's enough here to set your feet on the path. Read critically, Read with the understanding that sometimes these older writings were polemical in nature, addressing contemporary concerns that we today usually know little or nothing about. This deprives us of context and can lead to misinterpretation. The truth of yesterday is not necessarily the truth of today.
Have fun and don't forget to smash the State
May 1 2009 21:43
#16
CORRECTION: The anarchy.no site is bogus and there are warnings about it on the IFA website. Sorry for the bad lead.
May 2 2009 07:08
#17
Battlescarred wrote:
Actually, it isn't. A book that includes Thatcher as a libertarian???!!! You'd be far better off with Anarchism by Daniel Guerin, which despite its faults, explains class struggle anarchism pretty well. Or some of the AF pamphlets!!
Sorry Battlescarred but I think you're misrepresenting what Marshall wrote. In a chapter on 'The New Right and Anarcho-Capitalism' he wrote:
Peter Marshall wrote:
In the United Kingdom, neo-Conservatives argue that 'there is no such thing as society' and wish to 'roll back the frontiers of the state' - a view adopted, in theory if not always in practice, by Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990.
Hardly calling her a libertarian.
I found Demanding the Impossible to put anarchist thought into a historical perspective and whilst I may disagree with some of Marshall's conclusions on some things as a history of anarchism it is second to none.
Freedomfighter,
I am fairly new to anarchism too, I can recommend hanging out on internet forums to learn more about the movement, Anarchist Black Cat (www.anarchistblackcat.org) is good one I'm on. There are myriad books to read, Anarchism by Peter Kropotkin is a good start, though a little heavy maybe. Chomsky is good too. Put out feelers wherever you are to find some left-libertarian groups around you, try and find some likeminded mates!
Hope that helps.