Recommended reading on anarchist society?

Submitted by R Totale on March 3, 2019

Got this question from someone I'm in contact with and thought I'd throw it out to the floor:
"If anarchism wins, then what? Who will pick up the trash? Who will fix the ruptured pipes? Put out fires? What do we do with homicidal maniacs and sociopaths who mean folks harm? How long will it take for the utopian society to take root? And if you can refer me to an anarchist scholar who has tackled this topic and others like it, please lace me up."
What do people think the most relevant reading to recommend would be? Kropotkin? Berkman? Malatesta? AF/ACG pamphlets? Crimethinc? Dauve (not that he calls himself an anarchist, but w/e)? Colin Ward? Cindy Milstein? Something else entirely?

Noah Fence

5 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Noah Fence on March 3, 2019

Certainly doesn’t cover everything you mention but I really like Kropotkins ‘Are We Good Enough’. It kind of throws these challenges back at people but also answers some questions, at least in a broad sense.

tyneside anarchist

5 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by tyneside anarchist on March 3, 2019

Ward - anarchy in action
Gelderloos - anarchy works
Kropotkin - mutual aid

the inherent natural progression of mutual aid in times of it actually happening.. the community getting together and deciding who will fix ruptured pipes. An anarchist scholar will have no input on the there and then of a situation and how any particular community will respond. Although they may theorise....

autogestión

5 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by autogestión on March 4, 2019

How about this section from "An Anarchist FAQ"?: https://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/secIcon.html

adri

5 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by adri on March 4, 2019

R Totale

Got this question from someone I'm in contact with and thought I'd throw it out to the floor:
"If anarchism wins, then what? Who will pick up the trash?

Probably one for the music threads but... https://youtu.be/FO79S-VPkL0?t=49

But I guess it depends on what type of anarchism wins since anarchism includes more than just anarchist communism. I'd echo the Anarchist Faq suggestion for reading material.

R Totale

5 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by R Totale on March 4, 2019

^ hah, I had actually ended up signing my reply off with that, without even having seen this.

Khawaga

5 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Khawaga on March 4, 2019

Gaston Leval's Collectives in the Spanish Revolution would have some good stuff (I really like the chapter on Anarchist bookkeeping).

ajjohnstone

5 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by ajjohnstone on March 5, 2019

My introduction to anarchism was Alexander Berkman's ABC of Anarchism by Freedom Press

https://libcom.org/library/abc-anarchism-alexander-berkman

BigFluffyTail

5 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by BigFluffyTail on March 5, 2019

I feel like Errico Malatesta nailed it here (Part 7 of "Anarchy").

R Totale

5 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by R Totale on March 16, 2019

Belated thanks again for all these recommendations!

LauraMarx

5 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by LauraMarx on March 28, 2019

[removed]

adri

5 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by adri on March 28, 2019

LauraMarx

When you ask, "what do we do with homicidal maniacs and sociopaths who mean folks harm?", you take the existence of "maniacs" for granted; but "maniacs" are not produced spontaneously, by God, and set among people to create mayhem, but are instead produced by existing conditions themselves. In particular, if I want to kill people, I have to kill particular sorts of people - I cannot kill, for example, the president of the United States if I want to go on killing afterwards. I have to select people who will not be so easily missed and who people will not so quickly act on the murder of: I need to kill people of no status, who are not considered important to the world. I find that special classes of people are set aside for me - sex workers, more than anyone, then perhaps dependant patients at hospital (if I'm a doctor or nurse), young indigenous women on reservations (if I'm near one), etc. etc. Because some classes of persons lives are accorded so little value by society, I can murder one or two and go ...

Hmm, maybe not in the best of taste listing out types of people who would be "easy to kill", especially using the first person, to make whatever point you're trying to make, just a thought.

LauraMarx

5 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by LauraMarx on March 28, 2019

zugzwang

Hmm, maybe not in the best of taste listing out types of people who would be "easy to kill", especially using the first person, to make whatever point you're trying to make, just a thought.

Yeah, thats fair - it was a bit graphic, I shoukd have expressed it with more sensitivity. But I do think its important to be able to talk specifically about the way that capital determines how certain people are disposable, which I think giving specific examples for is important: each example I gave relates to a tracable epidemic of actual murders, as well as hopefully resonating with the readers experience, to demonstrate that brutality by "sociopaths" really does follow the rules of class society and is therefore its property.

Mike Harman

5 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Mike Harman on March 28, 2019

I haven't properly read it, but https://libcom.org/library/world-without-money-communism-les-amis-de-4-millions-de-jeunes-travailleurs is supposed to be good.

Also the AWW's attempt at a 'first six months' here: https://libcom.org/blog/insurrection-production-29082016

Mike Harman

5 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Mike Harman on March 28, 2019

Also it would be good to have a reading guide or listicle about these on the site if anyone was up for it.

R Totale

5 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by R Totale on March 28, 2019

LM - was just going to say thanks for that and was thinking of passing some of it on, would you maybe be up for editing some of it back in? Anyway, not officially circle-A as such, but I think the A-Z of Communisation and From Crisis to Communisation are really good and would have a place in such a reading list. And thanks again to BigFluffyTail, the person I passed that Malatesta extract on to really liked it and said that they'd be trying to find zine distros that have more Malatesta.

Spikymike

5 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Spikymike on March 29, 2019

And if we are meaning anarchist or libertarian communism I would recommend this again:
https://libcom.org/library/communism-points-consideration-linsecurite-sociale

Sike

5 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Sike on April 7, 2019

Mike Harman

I haven't properly read it, but https://libcom.org/library/world-without-money-communism-les-amis-de-4-millions-de-jeunes-travailleurs is supposed to be good.

I read it about halfway through and I remember thinking that it was good. That was a few years ago and the only reason I stopped halfway through and didn't read the whole thing is because the tablet that I had the PDF on at the time broke and so I lost the file and after that it was awhile before I was able to get another PC of my own.

Sike

5 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Sike on April 7, 2019

Wasn't Kropotkin's the 'Conquest Of Bread' used as something of a pocketbook by the Spanish anarchists to introduce workers and peasants to what a future anarchist society might look like? I think that Black Cat Press in Edmonton even printed a pocketbook sized edition of it in honor of it's use by the Spanish anarchists.

R Totale

5 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by R Totale on April 7, 2019

Just to mention that BigFluffyTail definitely won this thread - as mentioned, I sent that Malatesta section to the person who asked the question in the OP, and now I've just seen them use a Malatesta quote as the epigraph to a piece of writing.

Khawaga

5 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Khawaga on April 11, 2019

I think that Black Cat Press in Edmonton even printed a pocketbook sized edition of it in honor of it's use by the Spanish anarchists.

Yeah, they did. It sold really well at anarchist book fairs, partly because of the size.