Contemporary Anarchist Studies promotes the study of anarchism as a framework for understanding and acting on the most pressing problems of our times. The series publishes cutting-edge, socially engaged scholarship from around the world – bridging theory and practice, academic rigor and the insigh…
Preface This pamphlet is a collection of essays taken from various sources. The first is taken from the War Resisters League and is available on the Struggle () website. The following three are taken from the organising section of the Workers Solidarity Movements website. And lastly, the fifth is ta…
A question on Somalia It is a grave error for anarchists to fall into the trap of attributing the chaos and instability of some modern African nations as being due to the weakness of the state. In fact I would tend to see the exact opposite as being more true, the imposition of artificial states whi…
Introduction Since the mid-19th century, anarchists have maintained that the key to liberation is not to seize the state but to abolish it. From Paris to St. Petersburg, from Barcelona to Beijing, one generation of revolutionaries after another has had to learn this lesson the hard way. Shuffling po…
Dear comrades, Our immediate comment on the current wave of strikes, that have all but paralysed the health and educational sectors is that, the immediate post-military transition period in the country, has presented labour and the toiling masses of our people a unique opportunity for self-rediscove…
Gentlemen of the Jury: As in the case of my codefendant, Alexander Berkman, this is also the first time in my life I have ever addressed a jury. I once had occasion to speak to three judges. On the day after our arrest it was given out by the U.S. Marshal and the District Attorney's office that the…
We know that you fight in three fronts: a) against pseudo-leftist Chavista groups in power; b) against the anti-Chavez opposition directed by the social democrats and the right; and c) against groups or parties of the traditional left. Could there be a ghetto imposed by the state, the right and its…
In March 2012, we had the chance to meet some anarchists from the local infoshop and mindsetbreakerpress in manila, the capital of philippines. We talked to them about their general situation and about one campaign against gentrification and squatting in the national park. We publish parts of interv…
Egoism is the Philosophy put out by Max Stirner, and 19th century German philosopher. His thought is that of anti-politics, putting out a attack on anything and everything which presents itself as a “Fixed Idea” or “Phantom” as he puts it. These Fixed Ideas are social constructions which are…
Introduction The revolutionary vision of anarchism gained a foothold in the imagination of the popular classes with the rise of the anarchist strategy of revolutionary syndicalism in the trade unions affiliated to the First International. It has since provided the most devastating and comprehensive…
In the summer of 2018 I was at a movie night event with newly acquainted classmates from grad school. We were all still getting to know each other and one of them asked me something about my personal beliefs. I don’t remember the details but I remember admitting I was a Buddhist anarchist. I think…
We wrote in the past that as anarchists and autonomists of the countryside, our position is disadvantageous when it comes to the incidents of the cities. Often times the circumstances are such (like now) that we cannot be present in protests and squats where our presence is required. We watch in ago…
Preface I realize that my making this book available for free on the internet raises questions about my judgment, especially since I am a psychologist. The well-known theory of cognitive dissonance says that people will value something more if they pay a lot of money to get it. So how much will peop…
In the ’28 Theses on Class Society,’ we outline the historical changes that the concepts of proletariat, class struggle, and revolution have undergone, while still retaining their validity. Just as we borrow the notion of the “classless class society” from Adorno, one finds in the theses a f…
Anarchism means man living free and working constructively. It means the destruction of everything that is directed against man’s natural, healthy aspirations. Anarchism is not exclusively a theoretical teaching emanating from programs artificially conceived with an eye to the regulation of life…
IN ANARCHISM we have the extreme antithesis of socialism and communism. The socialist desires so to extend the sphere of the state that it shall embrace all the more important concerns of life. The communist, at least of the older school, would make the sway of authority and the routine which follow…
[Abstract] Since its launch in 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement has been linked with anarchist theory and practice by several scholars such as David Graeber, Nathan Schneider, and Mark Bray. However, Occupy was not an isolated case in the history of social movements. It emerged at a paroxysmal…
Anarchism developed as a distinctive strain within radical and revolutionary thought in the mid-19th century. The political theory, often associated with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (b. 1809–d. 1865), Michael Bakunin (b. 1814–d. 1876), and Peter Kropotkin (b. 1842–d. 1921), appeared in parallel…
Anarchism is not merely a doctrine that deals with the social aspect of human life, in the narrow meaning with which the term is invested in political dictionaries and, at meetings, by our propagandist speakers: anarchism is also the study of human life in general. Over the course of the elaboration…
Arif Dirlik. Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. 326p. Introduction The place of anarchism in the foundation and development of the many revolutions in 20th century China is largely unknown or forgotten in China and the world over. Philosophers and or…
NBP The Editorial Group (1931) “Weak and small, children are, for this very reason, sacred.” Élisée Reclus This leaflet was written to answer a question that various comrades have formulated: How will I educate my children? This is a question which we had been expecting and will answer accordi…
Ghana, West Africa, was a British colony called “Gold Coast” until 1957. It became the first independent country in “black” Africa after reforms and struggles in the 1940s and 1950s. The new president, the brilliant Kwame Nkrumah, and his Convention People’s Party (CPP), had fought for ind…
The people of the Ukraine, oppressed by Your commanders and commissars, and sometimes even directly by You under the leadership of these Commanders and Commissars, protest against such coercion: they waited for You as the liberators of the working masses from the yoke of the Denikinist gang of hangm…
Comrades in the Red Army! Your commanders and commissars are frightening and convincing you that we Makhnovists are murdering captured Red Army men. Comrades! This infamous lie has been concocted by your leaders only so that you, like slaves, would defend the interests of the commissars, so that you…
Comrade in the Red Army! You were sent by your commissars and commanders to capture the insurgent Makhnovists. Following orders from your chiefs, you will destroy peaceful villages, search, arrest and kill people you don't know but whom they have pointed out to you as enemies of the people. They tel…