Idag rapporteras det att Turkiet och dess allierade jihadister har tagit kontroll över Afrin City, den största staden i Afrin-kantonen, som är en del av norra Syriens federation. Bilder strömmar in på jihadister som river ner kurdiska statyer, samtidigt som vi i veckor fått rapporter och sett fansansfulla klipp på alla de civila som dött eller skadats av Turkiets urskiljningslösa bombningar. Förutom otaliga civila uppges ungefär 1 500 kurdiska soldater också ha dödats i striderna. Under natten togs beslutet att lämna staden och bespara människorna ytterligare lidande.

2017. Året då vi fortsatte färden in i en mörk tunnel, som under en stjärnlös himmel i en galax långt, långt bort. Länge var det som att vi var på två ställen samtidigt – en retorik som åkte berg- och dalbana på ett regnbågsfärgat spår i solstrålarnas värme, och så verkligheten, den obekvämt pinsamma, som tagit första avfart till höger och sen rakt ner i avgrunden. 2017 kändes det som att även retoriken landade, gråsossig och utbränd, och vi nu färdas allt längre in i mörkret på ett enkelriktat spår.

Många som aktivt lever i motstånd till makten begränsar sig till särskilda “domäner” för maktutövning. Den sociala frågan om hur lydande subjekt med slavmentalitet blir till förbises – i dess plats så kritiseras “den onda makten” där “uppe” och där “ute”.

Med anarkisten Sebastian Oversluij i vårt minne, fyra år efter hans död i strid i Chile under ett försök att expropriera en bank 2013. Med sorg i hjärtat, minns vi kamraten och anarkisten Alexandros Grigoropoulos, det var sju år sedan han mördades i Exarcheia (Grekland) av poliskulor år 2008.

Vi glömmer aldrig arbetarmakten under den iranska revolutionen och förlåter aldrig mullornas reaktionära slag mot arbetarråden.

Det pågår något som kallas för en “debatt” i borgerlig offentlighet och bloggar som berör kön och vad det egentligen är. I denna sörja har vi transpersoner blivit indragna, av ett antal ciskvinnor som har starka åsikter eller starka “frågor” om vad kön är och vad vi transpersoner egentligen är. Det förutsätts i debatten att “transrörelsen” står för en metafysik om könets väsende, vad tex begreppet kvinna och man egentligen betyder.

This book is dedicated to Sue Daniels (1960–2004), a brilliant ecologist, bold feminist, passionate anarchist, and beautiful and caring human being who nurtured and challenged everyone around her. Your bravery and wisdom continue to inspire me, and in that way your spirit remains indomitable…

I have written Desert as a nature loving anarchist primarily addressing others with similar feelings. As a result I have not always explained ideas to which I hold when they are, to some extent, givens within many anarchist and radical environmental circles. Hopefully I have written in an accessible enough manner, so even if you don’t come from this background you will still find Desert readable. While the best introductions to ecology and anarchy are moments spent within undomesticated ecosystems and anarchist communities, some may also find the following books helpful — I did.

This book was written in 1977 in the momentum of the revolutionary struggles that were taking place in Italy at the time, and that situation, now profoundly different, should be borne in mind when reading it today.

Talking about nihilism, much less attempting to define and critique it, is an exhausting sort of task, akin to talking to a mischievous toddler who has learned some empty single-word responses that make an adult go in circles. And one risks serious strain from all the eyerolling necessary to get through any such discussion. Most of us recognize that to bother to debate or critique nihilism is to lose from the outset. In the same way that feeding the trolls is a game utterly disconnected from sincere comparison and collaboration on ideas. And yet total disengagement is unsustainable.

The barricade is the myth of insurrection. To look back at past revolt is to reflect on the use of barricades. To see struggle today is to watch the burning barricades of the Paris banlieues, the walls of flame in Athens, the camp fires of the Native roadblock. A barricade consciousness was born in myth and spread as a symbol.

From the initial revolt in Ferguson last August to the demonstrations in Oakland and Berkeley last week, property destruction has been central to a new wave of struggle against police violence. But what does vandalizing businesses have to do with protesting police brutality? Why break windows?

There have long been people in the United States talking about secession or splitting the country into smaller nations. These kinds of discussions seem to be happening more as US states make regional agreements to manage Covid-19 recovery and right wingers fantasize about civil war. Creating smaller American nations will not liberate the people on this land. Instead we should expand individual and community autonomy.

Ich schreibe dies, weil ich frustriert bin. Ich bin frustriert mit der Reaktion zum Aufstand in Iran. Ich bin frustriert, wie diese leider nicht überraschend ist, wenn wir uns anschauen, wie sich die Diskussionslandschaft um den Hidschab und Feminismus in den letzten Jahrzehnten entwickelt hat.

I’m writing this because I’m frustrated. I’m frustrated with the responses to the uprising in Iran. I’m frustrated about how sadly unsurprising they are given the landscape of the discussions surrounding hijab and feminism have been developing for decades.

Hinter jedem Aspekt der anarchistisch insurrektionalistischen Theorie steht ein Projekt, ich sage nicht, ein erstickter Rahmen, der in allen seinen Teilen vollständig ist, sondern ein Projekt, das hinreichend erkennbar ist, weit über diese Seiten und die vielen anderen hinaus, die ich in meinem Leben zu diesem gequälten Thema geschrieben habe. Wenn dies nicht berücksichtigt wird, kann eine analytische Klärung nicht viel ausrichten, sondern läuft Gefahr, das zu bleiben, was sie ist: eine Ansammlung von Worten, die vorgeben, der Realität entgegenzuwirken, ein unangemessen idealistischer Anspruch. Die verlockenden Sukkulenten der klassischen deutschen Philosophie, mit ihren verführerischen Stacheln, haben schon viel Schaden angerichtet, ich hoffe, sie sind nicht noch mehr Spiegel für naive revolutionäre Lerchen.

Behind every aspect of anarchist insurrectionalist theory there is a project. I do not mean a lifeless picture complete in every detail, but a sufficiently identifiable project far beyond these pages and the many others that I have written on this tormented subject in my lifetime. Without taking this into account no analytical explanation will do much, it would risk remaining what it is, a set of words claiming to contest reality, an incongruously idealist claim. The fat plants of classical German philosophy have done all possible damage with their enticing stings, I hope that these are now no more than mere decoys.

While too many anarchists wring their hands about the end of the rollicking anti-globalization mobilizations of the last decade, others are conspiring a resistance of direct action in places where we have a chance to win. The truth is that while we learned many valuable organizational and tactical lessons during the years after Seattle, most of our energy was spent on largely symbolic actions. The real strength of these mobilizations was actually in the organizing: the ability to awaken many people to the possibility of resistance to global capitalism, as well as providing a catalyst for regional and international networks. At no point did these mobilizations actually threaten to end world capitalism or seriously challenge State power. or even liberate any socio-geographical territory. As anarchists, now is not the time to mourn the death of “anti-globe” mobilizations, but move to the next phase of our resistance – Insurrectory Mutual Aid.

This is a discussion about digital tools for communicating securely and privately. To begin, it must be stressed that a face-to-face meeting, out of sight of cameras and out of earshot from other people and devices, is the most secure way to communicate. Anarchists were going for walks to chat long before encrypted texting existed, and they should still do so now, whenever possible.

For Reuel and all those who fight.

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

The writings of Tiqqun and the Invisible Committee have given rise to the emergence of an authoritarian insurrectionalist tendency that has been recruiting and building its ranks for about the past decade and a half. Although one of the trademarks of tiqqunism is its approach to “invisibility”, or not being legible as a distinct tendency, after so many years and some significant betrayals, tiqqunists have thoroughly revealed who they are and what they want, which is at direct odds with any struggle against authority.

This will not be a very well-organized essay, since it amounts to more or less collating and editing a few related conversations and arguments I had several years ago concerning the matter of body autonomy and youth liberation. At the time, the prevailing discourse between anarchist circles I moved in and their liberal, authoritarian, and conservative critics went something like this:

You have most likely heard someone assert that, “rape is not sex, rape is violence.” Or the somewhat less reductive: “rape is not about sex, rape is about power,” or “rape is not about desire, it is about power,” or any other variation on the classic anti-rape slogan.