Journal

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] AN ERA OF REFLECTION: For the last week, my research has been focused very much on the 1920s, right at the end of the period that I ordinarily treat in historical work. I’ve been working with a rough-and-ready periodization scheme that breaks the long formative period of anarchism (1840-1920) in a forty-year “era of anarchy,” before the popularization of anarchism as an idea, during which “being an anarchist” meant engaging with an anarchy-without-anarchism, and a forty-year “era of anarchism,” during which the a largely communistic “modern anarchism” attempted to develop its […]

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] “The anarchist rainbow is too broad, anarchism includes elements too disparate for anyone to unite them. There are not two anarchists worthy of the name — among those who think for themselves — who have exactly the same conception.” — Ferdinand Fortin, “Anarchist Unity or Linkage?” (1934) A THOUGHT ON THE “ANARCHISTIC COUNTERCURRENT”: Anarchism develops internally by constantly “anarchizing,” while many of the practical projects of anarchists are driven by entirely different concerns—or kinds of concern—which almost inevitably draw our attention aware from the “beautiful ideal” of anarchy. So anarchism survives […]

[ezcol_2third] THE SECOND TIME AS FARCE: There is a new voluntaryist FAQ out there, marking a new campaign in the same old war by capitalists to get themselves mistaken for anarchists. I would say that the spirit of the 90s was alive and well other places than Portlandia, but honestly, having been caught up in the new attempts to invade mutualist forums with this nonsense, I have to say that it all feels more than a bit like some historical reenactment. The strategy seems to be to sift through An Anarchist FAQ and my translations for bits that might seem […]

[ezcol_2third] I’m going to try something new here. As I seem to be headed into another phase where most of the new material on the site is either on the heavy or the cryptic side, I’m going to see if I can’t get into the habit of posting some lighter fare, consisting of brief updates on projects and less elaborate sorts of anarchist commentary, but also quick takes on current events, beer and entertainment reviews, etc. I’m hoping to rearrange my daily work schedule a bit, so that this becomes a way of starting the day, staging the day’s projects, […]