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?
Certainly doesn’t cover
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.
Ward - anarchy in
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....
How about this section from
How about this section from "An Anarchist FAQ"?: https://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/secIcon.html
R Totale wrote: Got this
R Totale
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.
^ hah, I had actually ended
^ hah, I had actually ended up signing my reply off with that, without even having seen this.
Gaston Leval's Collectives in
Gaston Leval's Collectives in the Spanish Revolution would have some good stuff (I really like the chapter on Anarchist bookkeeping).
My introduction to anarchism
My introduction to anarchism was Alexander Berkman's ABC of Anarchism by Freedom Press
https://libcom.org/library/abc-anarchism-alexander-berkman
I feel like Errico Malatesta
I feel like Errico Malatesta nailed it here (Part 7 of "Anarchy").
Belated thanks again for all
Belated thanks again for all these recommendations!
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LauraMarx wrote: When you
LauraMarx
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.
zugzwang wrote: Hmm, maybe
zugzwang
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.
I haven't properly read it,
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
Also it would be good to have
Also it would be good to have a reading guide or listicle about these on the site if anyone was up for it.
LM - was just going to say
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.
And if we are meaning
And if we are meaning anarchist or libertarian communism I would recommend this again:
https://libcom.org/library/communism-points-consideration-linsecurite-sociale
Mike Harman wrote: I haven't
Mike Harman
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.
Wasn't Kropotkin's the
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.
Just to mention that
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.
Quote: I think that Black Cat
Yeah, they did. It sold really well at anarchist book fairs, partly because of the size.