We are settlers on this land, raised in cities, rootless, and alienated from the ecosystems we can’t help but be part of. But we want to unlearn what we have been taught by the dominant culture, and in the process, we want to re-learn joy, connection, and wonder, while embracing grief and loss in order to heal. We want to decolonize, and to do this, we need to build a new kind of relationship with the land. We want to take steps towards an anarchist ecology, towards a knowledge of the land that is anti-colonial and anti-authoritarian.

The text translated here first appeared in 1995 as a pamphlet addressed to the occupied spaces and social centers in Italy by two anarchist occupied spaces. In the few years previous to this, a movement aimed at the legalization of certain occupied spaces sprang up, largely centered around the Milanese social center Leoncavallo (now well-known as one of the places from which Ya Basta! And the Tute Blanche originated). From the start, this movement for legalization involved not merely negotiation with the state institutions, but the formation of alliances with specific parties of the official left. That the first social centers to involve themselves in this movement were part of the Autonomia reveals the purely instrumental nature of their decentralism and “autonomy”. The legalized social centers are now all camp followers of one or another of the Left parties. In this text, the authors first set forth their own basis for choosing to carry out occupations and then examine the implications of the legalization movement in terms of the recent history of squatting in Europe and in terms of the effects of negotiation and compromise with the institutions of domination on the project of self-organization and more particularly on those spaces that refuse legalization, compromise and negotiation with power.

“You can't fight alienation with alienated means.”

TRIGGER WARNING: OBVS it's A ZINE ABOUT SUBSTANCE (Mis) USE THERE) SPECIFIC BIT ABOUT PARTNER ABUSE AND, WITH WRITTEN WARNING & STARS, AND YOU CAN EASILY SKIP IT WITHOUT LOOSING THE SENSE OF WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. FAIR BIT ABOUT QUEERPHOBIA (INCL, THE INTERNALISED ONE). VAGUE MENTION OF POLICE

Situation in Gaza Strip is getting more catastrophic every day. In our attempt to better understand the situation in the region , we made an interview with an Israeli anarchist. We talk about the modern anarchist movement, the Israeli occupation of Palestine, resistance against it and prospects for the future.

Back in the 1990s, answering mail for the ’zine I used to publish, I noticed that Germans—even German anarchists—responded strangely whenever the conflict between Israel and Palestine came up. Every time anything related to the issue appeared in my ’zine, I got a lengthy letter from an irate German accusing me of Palestinian nationalism or even borderline anti-Semitism. I never once received such a letter from citizens of any other nation, even though the ’zine was distributed as far as Israel, nor did I ever receive one from a Jewish reader of any nationality. From my perspective, the positions in the ’zine on that issue were not particularly controversial: like most others in the anarchist community, I deplored the violence and racism of the Israeli military and the Zionist settler movement, while remaining suspicious of those seeking to capitalize on what I considered understandable Palestinian desperation. At the time, I interpreted these letters as nothing more than an overzealous effort on the part of some Germans to be sensitive about issues affecting Jewish people.

It’s been a mainstay of the radical left for a long time to blame the lack of radical activity by whatever particular collective subject they believe to have potential on some sort of capitalist subterfuge. The various arguments for what exactly happened range considerably, but they tend to assume that a subset of the population who would otherwise revolt against the system have been brought off and/or propagandized into submission.

“I’m honestly still trying to kick the nationalist habit,” jokes activist Ahmad Nimer, as we talk outside a Ramallah cafe. Our topic of conversation seems an unlikely one: living as an anarchist in Palestine. “In a colonized country, it’s quite difficult to convince people of non- authoritarian, non-state solutions. You encounter, pretty much, a strictly anti- colonial – often narrowly nationalist – mentality,” laments Nimer. Indeed, anarchists in Palestine currently have a visibility problem. Despite high-profile inter- national and Israeli anarchist activity, there doesn’t seem to be a matching awareness of anarchism among many Palestinians themselves.

The appearance of the Egyptian Black Bloc in Cairo’s streets in January 2013 triggered gullible excitement in Western anarchist circles. Little thought was given to the Egyptian Black Bloc’s political vision – or lack thereof – tactics, or social and economic positions. For most Western anarchists, it was enough that they looked and dressed like anarchists to warrant uncritical admiration. Facebook pages of Israeli anarchists were swamped with pictures of Egyptian Black Bloc activists; skimming through the US anarchist blogosphere during that period would have given one the impression that the Black Bloc was Egypt’s first-ever encounter with anarchism and anti-authoritarianism. But as American writer Joshua Stephens notes, the jubilant reaction many Western anarchists have towards the Black Bloc raises unflattering questions concerning their obsession with form and representation, rather than content and actions. And in this regard, these anarchists are not different from the Islamists who were quick to denounce the Black Bloc as blasphemous and infidel merely because they looked like Westerners. Further, many Western anarchist reactions to the Black Bloc unmask an entrenched orientalist tendency. Their disregard of Egypt and the Middle East’s rich history of anarchism is one manifestation of this. As Egyptian anarchist, Yasser Abdullah illustrates, anarchism in Egypt dates back to the 1870’s in response to the inauguration of the Suez Canal; Italian anarchists in Alexandria took part in the First International, published an anarchist journal in 1877, and took part in the Orabi revolution of 1881; Greek and Italian anarchists also organised strikes and protests with Egyptian workers. Yet these struggles are nonchalantly shunned by those who act today as if the Black Bloc is the first truly radical group to grace Egyptian soil.

L’apparition dans les rues du Caire, en janvier 2013, du Black Bloc égyptien a déclenché une candide euphorie dans les cercles anarchistes occidentaux. Aucun intérêt n’a été accordé à la ligne politique du Black Block – ou à son absence -, à ses stratégies ou à ses prises de positions sur le plan économique et social. Pour la majorité des anarchistes occidentaux, il leur a suffi que les membres du Black Bloc leur ressemblent et qu’ils soient vêtus comme eux pour susciter en leur sein une admiration inconditionnelle. Les pages Facebook des anarchistes israéliens furent inondées de photos d’activistes du Black Bloc en question. Parcourir la blogosphère des anarchistes américains, pendant cette période, donne l’impression que ce Black Bloc marquait la première rencontre que l’Égypte ait jamais connu avec l’anarchisme ou l’anti-autoritarisme.

Desde algunas semanas ya, escuchamos desde muches la necesidad de expresarse respecto a lo que “acontece ahora en Gaza”. Argumentos que llegan incluso a sugerir que una nueva guerra comenzó, se han vuelto comunes en espacios radicales o incluso en círculos anárquicos. Desde que la fuga en Gaza ocurriera, la lucha por la liberación del pueblo palestino, sufre en Alemania de ser reducida a las acciones de Hamas. El estado Alemán, partidos políticos, e incluso aveces compañeres, están muy preocupases de que tan cerca o lejos una pueda estar de las ideas Hamas. Al mismo tiempo, muy poco sobe las raíces históricas de una guerra-asimétrica que lleva ya mas de 70 años es considerado en las discusiones por estas posiciones.

Seit einigen Wochen hören wir von Vielen von der Notwendigkeit sich hinsichtlich der “Geschehnisse in Gaza” zu äußern. Argumente, die darauf hindeuten, dass ein neuer Krieg begonnen habe, sind weit verbreitet, auch in radikalen oder anarchistischen Kreisen. Seit dem Ausbruch aus Gaza hat der palästinensische Kampf um Befreiung in Deutschland stark unter der Reduzierung auf die Aktionen der Hamas gelitten. Der deutsche Staat, Politiker*innen und manchmal sogar unsere Mitstreiter*innen sorgen sich sehr darum, wie nah oder fern man sich zu den Ideen der Hamas positioniert. Zum historischen Kontext eines asymmetrischen Krieges, welcher nun schon mehr als 70 Jahre andauert, wird dabei jedoch nur wenig gesagt. Ein andauerndes Massaker an der palästinensischen Bevölkerung begann bereits zu der Zeit des britischen Kolonialismus, assistiert durch die Errichtung eines Apartheidregimes in einer künstlich geschaffenen Siedler*innengesellschaft.

Since a couple of weeks, we have heard from many about the necessity of expressing themselves regarding what is “happening now in Gaza”. Arguments that seem to almost suggest that a new war has started are common even in radical or anarchist circles. Since the break out from Gaza took place, the Palestinian struggle for liberation has been suffering in Germany from being reduced to Hamas’ actions. The German State, political parties, and even sometimes our comrades, are very concerned about how far or close one can be towards Hamas’ ideas. But very little about the historical roots of an asymmetric war that has lasted more than 70 years is brought into discussion by these positions. An ongoing massacre of Palestinian people has been happening since the days of British colonialism, assisted by the establishment of an apartheid regime in an artificially created settler society.

En mayo de 2023, cuando Mauricio García asesinó a ocho personas en un centro comercial en Allen, Texas, parecía otro asesinato masivo sin sentido, similar a los tiroteos en las escuelas. Pero cuando se supo que se identificaba como neonazi, se propagó la indignación: decir que un latino era así fue demasiado para muchos.

Als Mauricio Garcia im Mai 2023 in einem Einkaufszentrum in Allen, Texas, acht Menschen tötete, schien die Tat nur ein weiterer sinnloser Massenmord zu sein, ähnlich wie die unzähligen Schießereien an Schulen. Doch als herauskam, dass er sich als Neonazi identifizierte, machte sich Empörung breit: Einen Latino so zu bezeichnen, war für viele einfach zu viel.

In May 2023, when Mauricio Garcia killed eight people in an outlet mall in Allen, Texas, it seemed like just another senseless mass murder similar to innumerable school shootings. But when it came out that he identified as a neo-nazi, outrage spread: calling a Latino that was just too much for many.

The only thing more embarrassing than the enduring presence of the anachronistic imperial ethnological museum into the twenty-first-century is an imperial ethnological museum attempting a political rebrand as though to justify its existence despite being housed in a recently rebuilt Prussian palace. Upon entering the grand lobby of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin, you—the museum-going audience—are met with a series of challenging questions on bright pink and orange banners: discursive prompts about appropriation, Eurocentrism, and taste to anticipate your experience. Translated into both English and German, the banners illustrate the nauseating institutional virtue signaling to which publics have been subjected, particularly after the global protests following the murder of George Floyd and accompanying discourses about colonial monuments. Simultaneously, they read as self-satisfied rhetorical questions, the kind that an obviously guilty person in power asks aloud in perpetuity as a substitute for even beginning to conceive of changing their behavior. Despite being an internationally renowned and world-class museum (and thus, universally accessible), the banner’s first question immediately narrows and truncates its audience: “How would you feel if your belongings were taken and displayed in a museum?” It’s a provocative question that, for many, is far from hypothetical. The global Indigenous demand for the restitution of human remains—and valuable cultural artifacts—pales in the face of the museum’s apparent need to display those objects in pleasing indexical formations behind glass display cases. The orderly museum, in other words, is a purveyor of psychic violence.

In this new, even more horrifying phase of the 75 year long occupation of Palestine by Israel, it is important to give a platform to Palestinians struggling against ethnic cleansing.

Below, Freedom reproduces a transcript of a talk with Uri Gordon on the current situation in Palestine and Israel organised by Infolibre Thessaloniki.

Hattest du jemals das Gefühl, dein Job wäre ausgedacht? Dass die Welt sich weiter drehen würde, wenn du nicht 8 Stunden deine Tätigkeit verrichten würdest? David Graeber erkundete das Phänomen der unsinnigen Jobs für unsere jüngste Sommerausgabe—jeder, der berufstätig ist, sollte sorgfältig lesen…

In the year 1930, John Maynard Keynes predicted that, by century's end, technology would have advanced sufficiently that countries like Great Britain or the United States would have achieved a 15-hour work week. There's every reason to believe he was right. In technological terms, we are quite capable of this. And yet it didn't happen. Instead, technology has been marshaled, if anything, to figure out ways to make us all work more. In order to achieve this, jobs have had to be created that are, effectively, pointless. Huge swathes of people, in Europe and North America in particular, spend their entire working lives performing tasks they secretly believe do not really need to be performed. The moral and spiritual damage that comes from this situation is profound. It is a scar across our collective soul. Yet virtually no one talks about it.

Black Anarchic Notes

Der Rechtsruck in Deutschland macht Angst. Auf der diskursiven Ebene verbreitet sich der Gedanke "uns Deutschen fehl es, weil den Flüchtlingen zu viel gegeben wird". Daraus folgt Verschärfung der indirekten Morde im Mittelmeer und der Hetze gegen Flüchtlinge im Land. Was kann dem diskursiv entgegengesetzt werden? Die radikale Linke versucht dem seit Jahren eine komplexe Kapitalismusanalyse entgegenzusetzen, welche aber fast nur unter Studierenden in den linken Szenen der Großstädte angenommen wird. Dies war nicht immer so und hat Gründe, die veränderbar sind. Eine Analyse des Problems und ein Vorschlag für eine neue Taktik.

This report back was written by one affinity group. It principally relies on our experiences, what we read on twitter, and what other trusted comrades reported to us.