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Burn It Down! Anarchism, Activism, and the Vancouver Five, 1967–1985
Burn it Down! Anarchism, Activism, and the Vancouver Five, 1967–1985 by Eryk Martin M.A., University of Victoria, 2008 B.A. (Hons.), University of Victoria, 2006 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences © Eryk Martin 2016 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Spring 2016 Approval Name: Eryk Martin Degree: Doctor of Philosophy (History) Title: Burn it Down! Anarchism, Activism, and the Vancouver Five, 1967–1985 Examining Committee: Chair: Dimitris Krallis Associate Professor Mark Leier Senior Supervisor Professor Karen Ferguson Supervisor Professor Roxanne Panchasi Supervisor Associate Professor Lara Campbell Internal Examiner Professor Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Joan Sangster External Examiner Professor Gender and Women’s Studies Trent University Date Defended/Approved: January 15, 2016 ii Ethics Statement iii Abstract This dissertation investigates the experiences of five Canadian anarchists commonly knoWn as the Vancouver Five, Who came together in the early 1980s to destroy a BC Hydro power station in Qualicum Beach, bomb a Toronto factory that Was building parts for American cruise missiles, and assist in the firebombing of pornography stores in Vancouver. It uses these events in order to analyze the development and transformation of anarchist activism between 1967 and 1985. Focusing closely on anarchist ideas, tactics, and political projects, it explores the resurgence of anarchism as a vibrant form of leftWing activism in the late tWentieth century. In addressing the ideological basis and contested cultural meanings of armed struggle, it uncovers Why and how the Vancouver Five transformed themselves into an underground, clandestine force. -
Anarchist Cybernetics Control and Communication in Radical Left Social Movements
ANARCHIST CYBERNETICS CONTROL AND COMMUNICATION IN RADICAL LEFT SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester by Thomas Swann MA (University of Glasgow), MA (Radboud University Nijmegen) School of Management University of Leicester September 2015 Thesis Abstract Anarchist Cybernetics Control and Communication in Radical Left Social Movements by Thomas Swann This thesis develops the concept of anarchist cybernetics in an attempt to elaborate an understanding of the participatory and democratic forms of organisation that have characterised radical left-wing social movements in recent years. Bringing together Stafford Beer’s organisational cybernetics and the organisational approaches of both classical and contemporary anarchism, an argument is made for the value of an anarchist cybernetic perspective that goes beyond the managerialism cybernetics has long been associated with. Drawing on theoretical reflection and an empirical strategy of participatory political philosophy, the thesis examines contemporary social movement organisational practices through two lenses: control and communication. Articulating control as self-organisation, in line with cybernetic thought, an argument is made for finding a balance between, on the one hand, strategic identity and cohesion and, on the other, tactical autonomy. While anarchist and radical left activism often privileges individual autonomy, it is suggested here that too much autonomy or tactical flexibility can be as damaging to a social movement organisation as over-centralisation. Turning to communication, the thesis looks at social media, the focus of another kind of hype in recent activism, and identifies both the potentials and the problems of using social media platforms in anarchist and radical left organisation. -
Black Flag White Masks: Anti-Racism and Anarchist Historiography
Black Flag White Masks: Anti-Racism and Anarchist Historiography Süreyyya Evren1 Abstract Dominant histories of anarchism rely on a historical framework that ill fits anarchism. Mainstream anarchist historiography is not only blind to non-Western elements of historical anarchism, it also misses the very nature of fin de siècle world radicalism and the contexts in which activists and movements flourished. Instead of being interested in the network of (anarchist) radicalism (worldwide), political historiography has built a linear narrative which begins from a particular geographical and cultural framework, driven by the great ideas of a few father figures and marked by decisive moments that subsequently frame the historical compart- mentalization of the past. Today, colonialism/anti-colonialism and imperialism/anti-imperialism both hold a secondary place in contemporary anarchist studies. This is strange considering the importance of these issues in world political history. And the neglect allows us to speculate on the ways in which the priorities might change if Eurocentric anarchist histories were challenged. This piece aims to discuss Eurocentrism imposed upon the anarchist past in the form of histories of anarchism. What would be the consequences of one such attempt, and how can we reimagine the anarchist past after such a critique? Introduction Black Flag White Masks refers to the famous Frantz Fanon book, Black Skin White Masks, a classic in anti-colonial studies, and it also refers to hidden racial issues in the history of the black flag (i.e., anarchism). Could there be hidden ethnic hierarchies in the main logic of anarchism's histories? The huge difference between the anarchist past and the histories of anarchism creates the gap here. -
Johnnie Crossan School of Geographical and Earth Sciences University of Glasgow [email protected]
Book Review Symposium James C. Scott, Two Cheers for Anarchism: Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Dignity, and Meaningful Work and Play, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780691155296 (cloth); ISBN: 9780691161037 (paper) Anarchism is a highly contested political philosophy. Jesse Cohn and Shawn Wilbur (2003: 4) write, “[a]narchist history is a terrain occupied by materialists and mystics, communists and mutualists, nihilists and scientists, progressivists and primitivists alike”. To be sure, many who have claimed the mantle of ‘anarchist’ have missed the point completely, mistaking it for and using it to legitimise all manner of absurd, violent, and exploitative behaviours. Contra a wealth of misreadings, misunderstandings, and deliberate acts of deceit by its detractors, anarchism proper means a society based on mutual aid and mass democratic participation characterised by the absence of domination of human beings over other human beings. If only it were so simple! Anyone who has spent their time in a ‘Temporary Autonomous Zone’ or an anarchist influenced Social Centre will have been confronted with a dizzying number of anarchisms: the proponents of many arguing ‘my anarchism is better than your anarchism’1. For a political idea that values open critical debate this is no bad thing (although some comrades should practice more humility in their debating skills). In my experience as an urban activist of the anarchist sort, individuals fall in and out various anarchisms, never becoming a disciple of one for any great length of time. In the following paragraphs, inspired, in part, by James Scott’s Two Cheers for 1 Here I am paraphrasing the David Rovics’ song ‘I’m a better anarchist than you’. -
Leaving the Left Behind 115 Post-Left Anarchy?
Anarchy after Leftism 5 Preface . 7 Introduction . 11 Chapter 1: Murray Bookchin, Grumpy Old Man . 15 Chapter 2: What is Individualist Anarchism? . 25 Chapter 3: Lifestyle Anarchism . 37 Chapter 4: On Organization . 43 Chapter 5: Murray Bookchin, Municipal Statist . 53 Chapter 6: Reason and Revolution . 61 Chapter 7: In Search of the Primitivists Part I: Pristine Angles . 71 Chapter 8: In Search of the Primitivists Part II: Primitive Affluence . 83 Chapter 9: From Primitive Affluence to Labor-Enslaving Technology . 89 Chapter 10: Shut Up, Marxist! . 95 Chapter 11: Anarchy after Leftism . 97 References . 105 Post-Left Anarchy: Leaving the Left Behind 115 Prologue to Post-Left Anarchy . 117 Introduction . 118 Leftists in the Anarchist Milieu . 120 Recuperation and the Left-Wing of Capital . 121 Anarchy as a Theory & Critique of Organization . 122 Anarchy as a Theory & Critique of Ideology . 125 Neither God, nor Master, nor Moral Order: Anarchy as Critique of Morality and Moralism . 126 Post-Left Anarchy: Neither Left, nor Right, but Autonomous . 128 Post-Left Anarchy? 131 Leftism 101 137 What is Leftism? . 139 Moderate, Radical, and Extreme Leftism . 140 Tactics and strategies . 140 Relationship to capitalists . 140 The role of the State . 141 The role of the individual . 142 A Generic Leftism? . 142 Are All Forms of Anarchism Leftism . 143 1 Anarchists, Don’t let the Left(overs) Ruin your Appetite 147 Introduction . 149 Anarchists and the International Labor Movement, Part I . 149 Interlude: Anarchists in the Mexican and Russian Revolutions . 151 Anarchists in the International Labor Movement, Part II . 154 Spain . 154 The Left . 155 The ’60s and ’70s . -
Anarchist Pedagogies: Collective Actions, Theories, and Critical Reflections on Education Edited by Robert H
Anarchist Pedagogies: Collective Actions, Theories, and Critical Reflections on Education Edited by Robert H. Haworth Anarchist Pedagogies: Collective Actions, Theories, and Critical Reflections on Education Edited by Robert H. Haworth © 2012 PM Press All rights reserved. ISBN: 978–1–60486–484–7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2011927981 Cover: John Yates / www.stealworks.com Interior design by briandesign 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PM Press PO Box 23912 Oakland, CA 94623 www.pmpress.org Printed in the USA on recycled paper, by the Employee Owners of Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan. www.thomsonshore.com contents Introduction 1 Robert H. Haworth Section I Anarchism & Education: Learning from Historical Experimentations Dialogue 1 (On a desert island, between friends) 12 Alejandro de Acosta cHAPteR 1 Anarchism, the State, and the Role of Education 14 Justin Mueller chapteR 2 Updating the Anarchist Forecast for Social Justice in Our Compulsory Schools 32 David Gabbard ChapteR 3 Educate, Organize, Emancipate: The Work People’s College and The Industrial Workers of the World 47 Saku Pinta cHAPteR 4 From Deschooling to Unschooling: Rethinking Anarchopedagogy after Ivan Illich 69 Joseph Todd Section II Anarchist Pedagogies in the “Here and Now” Dialogue 2 (In a crowded place, between strangers) 88 Alejandro de Acosta cHAPteR 5 Street Medicine, Anarchism, and Ciencia Popular 90 Matthew Weinstein cHAPteR 6 Anarchist Pedagogy in Action: Paideia, Escuela Libre 107 Isabelle Fremeaux and John Jordan cHAPteR 7 Spaces of Learning: The Anarchist Free Skool 124 Jeffery Shantz cHAPteR 8 The Nottingham Free School: Notes Toward a Systemization of Praxis 145 Sara C. -
Anarchism in Britain
Anarchism in Britain Benjamin Franks 2009 Contents References And Suggested Readings ............................ 4 2 As far back as the nineteenth century there was a significant division between class struggle, social anarchism, and the alternative, individualist version of libertarianism. In the UK con- text this latter branch of anarchism was associated with Henry Seymour, a “disciple” ofBen- jamin Tucker. Seymour, who some claim edited the first anarchist newspaper in Britain, The Anarchist (1885), briefly collaborated with Peter Kropotkin, but their partnership soon folded be- cause of philosophical differences (individualism vs. mainstream socialist versions of anarchism). Kropotkin departed to set up his own anti-capitalist anarchist paper, Freedom. Kropotkin’s Freedom group also supported the radical organization of largely Jewish immi- grants, based around Der Arbeiter Fraint (The Workers’ Friend) newspaper, which was originally a non-aligned socialist periodical but increasingly identified itself as anarchist. With the assistance of the anarchosyndicalist Rudolf Rocker, the group helped to form unions of Jewish immigrant textile workers, and by 1912 organized a successful mass strike of thousands of tailors from across London’s communities. The first decades of the twentieth century saw a considerable increase in agitation within British industry. By 1907 the growth was such that Freedom was producing its own syndical- ist journal, The Voice of Labor, edited by the shop steward John Turner, a former colleague of William Morris. This intensified militancy did not originate from anarchosyndicalists, butdid confirm the relevance of such tactics. The extent of syndicalist thinking in the more mainstream workers’ movement was demonstrated by the document produced by members of the unofficial rank-and-file committee of the Miners’ Federation of Britain (a forerunner of the National Union of Mineworkers). -
SAA Archaeological Record 9 ANARCHY and ARCHAEOLOGY
SAArchaeol ogica l reco rd A d n a R c h Y aN A rch A E o log Y SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY The Magazine of the Society for American Archaeology Volume 17, No. 1 January 2017 Editor’s Corner 2 Anna Marie Prentiss From the President 3 Diane Gifford-Gonzalez, RPA In Brief 5 Tobi A. Brimsek Volunteer Profile : Susan deFrance 6 The Importance of Archaeology in 7 Andrew Martindale Vancouver and Beyond special section: anarchy and archaeology An Introduction to Anarchism in Archaeology 9 Lewis Borck and Matthew C. Sanger Cycles of Resistance 17 John R. Welch Anarchist Theory Advances 20 David Pacifico Anthropology’s Humanistic Mission Assembling Conceptual Tools to Examine the Moral 22 Carole Crumley and Political Structures of the Past Anarchy and Self-Liberation 24 Charles E. Orser Jr. Against Typology : A Critical Approach to 28 Edward R. Henry, Bill Angelbeck, and Uzma Z. Rizvi Archaeological Order Phantasmal Futures, Speculative Titles 31 James Birmingham An Anarchist Archaeology for the Anthropocene : 33 Theresa Kintz A Manifesto Anarchy and Archaeology: 37 James Arias Fajardo and Sophie Marie Rotermund Toward a Decentralization of Knowledge Anarchic Theory and the Study of Hunter-Gatherers 39 Matthew C. Sanger Remembering the Ghosts of 42 Lindsay M. Montgomery Wolf, Mauss, and Pritchard In Memoriam: Robert Leland Smith 45 Richard E. Hughes On the cover: Ceramic sherds, trowels, folding rule, and theory. “Anarchaeology” by Lewis Borck can be reused under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. ANARCHY AND ARCHAEOLOGY AN INTRODUCTION TO ANARCHISM IN ARCHAEOLOGY Lewis Borck and Matthew C. -
Anarchist Lives and Books Double Issue Free Commune and Billy
Number 70•71 one pound or two dollars July 2012 Free Commune and Billy MacQueen We are beginning to think about scanning some of the prominent Tolstoyan Christian anarchist (he visited material we hold in the KSL archives. What we want to Tolstoy in Russia in 1895) and helped found the do though is put what we scan into some kind of context Croydon Brotherhood Church and, in 1896, the and not just leave it floating around aimlessly on the Purleigh Brotherhood Church. Both were based on the “world wide web”. Anyhow – here’s a paper that inter• principles of voluntary co•operation and non•violence. ests us, The Free Commune from Leeds. It appears to We can see, then, that there is a lot going on in have been published during 1898 and it re•invented this little four•page newspaper and a wide range of itself as The Free Commune: A Quarterly Magazine in ideas and anarchist practice are represented, including a January 1899. KSL holds No. 3 ofThe Free Commune scornful comment on the horrified reaction of “reform• and No. 1 of theThe Free Commune Magazine. (If you ers” to the assassination of the Empress Elisabeth of can send us other copies that would be a treat!!!) Austria by the Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni .The Both of these titles were put together by William editors would like to see a similar reaction whenever a “Billy” MacQueen (1875•1908) and Alf Barton (1868• working woman is killed by “the profit•mongering 1933). MacQueen was based in Leeds, Barton in system.” The attitude of the editors to the killing of the Manchester. -
Changing Anarchism.Pdf
Changing anarchism Changing anarchism Anarchist theory and practice in a global age edited by Jonathan Purkis and James Bowen Manchester University Press Manchester and New York distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave Copyright © Manchester University Press 2004 While copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in Manchester University Press, copyright in individual chapters belongs to their respective authors. This electronic version has been made freely available under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC- ND) licence, which permits non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction provided the author(s) and Manchester University Press are fully cited and no modifications or adaptations are made. Details of the licence can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Published by Manchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for ISBN 0 7190 6694 8 hardback First published 2004 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Typeset in Sabon with Gill Sans display by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Manchester Printed in Great Britain by CPI, Bath Dedicated to the memory of John Moore, who died suddenly while this book was in production. His lively, innovative and pioneering contributions to anarchist theory and practice will be greatly missed. -
Information Liberation Challenging the Corruptions of Information Power
Information liberation Challenging the corruptions of information power Brian Martin FREEDOM PRESS London 1998 First published 1998 by Freedom Press 84b Whitechapel High Street London E1 7QX ISBN 0 900384 93 X printed in Great Britain by Aldgate Press, Gunthorpe Street, London E1 7RQ Contents 1 Power tends to corrupt 1 2 Beyond mass media 7 3 Against intellectual property 29 4 Antisurveillance 57 5 Free speech versus bureaucracy 83 6 Defamation law and free speech 107 7 The politics of research 123 8 On the value of simple ideas 143 9 Celebrity intellectuals 164 10 Toward information liberation 172 Index 176 (The index is not included in this electronic edition since, due to slight differences in layout, not all page references are correct.) About Freedom Press Freedom Press was founded in 1886 by a group which included Charlotte Wilson and Peter Kropotkin. Its publication Freedom, currently a fortnightly, is the oldest anarchist newspaper in continuous production. Other publications include The Raven, a quarterly of anarchist thought begun in 1987, and some 70 book titles currently in print. Authors range from anarchist classics like Kropotkin, Malatesta, Rudolf Rocker, Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman, to contemporary thinkers like Harold Barclay, Colin Ward and Murray Bookchin. Subjects include anthropology, economics, ecology, education, utopias, capitalism, the state, war and peace, children, land, housing, transport and much more, and the arts are not neglected. There is a set of portrait/biography cards by Clifford Harper, several books of hilarious anarchist strip cartoons, a book of photographs and a children’s story book. Freedom Press is also the wholesale distributor for several other anarchist publishers, and runs a retail bookshop in Angel Alley alongside Whitechapel Art Gallery, open six days a week, selling books on anarchism and related subjects from all sorts of publishers, over the counter and by mail. -
“For a World Without Oppressors:” U.S. Anarchism from the Palmer
“For a World Without Oppressors:” U.S. Anarchism from the Palmer Raids to the Sixties by Andrew Cornell A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Social and Cultural Analysis Program in American Studies New York University January, 2011 _______________________ Andrew Ross © Andrew Cornell All Rights Reserved, 2011 “I am undertaking something which may turn out to be a resume of the English speaking anarchist movement in America and I am appalled at the little I know about it after my twenty years of association with anarchists both here and abroad.” -W.S. Van Valkenburgh, Letter to Agnes Inglis, 1932 “The difficulty in finding perspective is related to the general American lack of a historical consciousness…Many young white activists still act as though they have nothing to learn from their sisters and brothers who struggled before them.” -George Lakey, Strategy for a Living Revolution, 1971 “From the start, anarchism was an open political philosophy, always transforming itself in theory and practice…Yet when people are introduced to anarchism today, that openness, combined with a cultural propensity to forget the past, can make it seem a recent invention—without an elastic tradition, filled with debates, lessons, and experiments to build on.” -Cindy Milstein, Anarchism and Its Aspirations, 2010 “Librarians have an ‘academic’ sense, and can’t bare to throw anything away! Even things they don’t approve of. They acquire a historic sense. At the time a hand-bill may be very ‘bad’! But the following day it becomes ‘historic.’” -Agnes Inglis, Letter to Highlander Folk School, 1944 “To keep on repeating the same attempts without an intelligent appraisal of all the numerous failures in the past is not to uphold the right to experiment, but to insist upon one’s right to escape the hard facts of social struggle into the world of wishful belief.