The ABC of Anarchism… by Alexander Berkman.. free download

 
A gifted writer for the anarchist movement, Alexander Berkman left Russia for the United States in 1888 when he was eighteen. Thirty-one years later, after serving a prison term for an attempted assassination, he was expelled to the Soviet Union, a country which he eventually renounced.
But before his repudiation of the Soviet system, Berkman attempted to answer some of the charges made against anarchism and to present its case clearly and intelligently. This book, first published in 1929, is the result of those efforts.  
 
Thorough and well stated, The ABC of Anarchism is today widely regarded as a classic declaration of the movement’s goals and methods. For those who have questions about anarchism, Berkman provides lucid answers. In conversational tones, he discusses society as it existed in the early twentieth century; why in his opinion, anarchy was necessary; the myths surrounding it; and necessary preparations for its successful implementation. Continue reading “The ABC of Anarchism… by Alexander Berkman.. free download”

Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell.. Free Download, PDF

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Literature,  shared with thanks

…”They [Catalans] had attempted to produce within the militias a sort of temporary working model of the classless society. Of course there was no perfect equality, but there was a nearer approach to it than I had ever seen or than I would have thought conceivable in time of war.”…

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Homage to Catalonia (1938) is what it says, George Orwell’s homage to the people of Catalonia who attempted an anarchist/socialist revolution in response to the army’s attack on their fledgling democracy, and more broadly in response to centuries of harsh rule by feudal landowners supported by the Catholic church and the monarchy. A revolution that was brought down not by the civil war but by the backsliding of right-wing socialists in the Republican government and by the treachery of the Communists.

In this it resembles (or presages) another account of anarchist ‘revolution’ undone by Communists, Daniel Cohn-Bendit’s Obsolete Communism: The Left-Wing Alternative(1968) about the Paris uprisings of that year and which I have owned almost since it was written. In fact, a great deal of Orwell’s book, particularly about the lies invented and propagated by the news media, serves to show plus ca change etc.

Homage to Catalonia has two parts – Orwell’s memoir of his time as a volunteer soldier, and an analysis of the failure of the Revolution – written in the immediate aftermath of his service, “five months ago” as he says, and before the end of the Spanish war (1936-1939). The book contains a third part, Looking Back on the Spanish War, written in 1943. But that deals in particular with the partisan, dishonest role played by the press and deserves a separate review. Continue reading “Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell.. Free Download, PDF”

A New World in our Hearts: ‘La Rimaia’ Squat centre Evicted for 5th Time

Incredibly last week was the 5th time the Occupied Social Centre La Rimaia  (pronounced ReeMyYa) has been violently evicted. Its history reads like a passionate anti-capitalist thriller.

Beginning in Dec 2008 the first Rimaia was occupied in central Barcelona at the height of the student uprising against the Bologna process of elitism and  privatising of Universities.

After a violent eviction the ‘okupas’ took over a huge building in the main Gran Via and declared the Free University with dozens of free courses and workshops. it had a library, an art workshop, a cooperative and multiple classes (philosophy, computer networks, Languages…).

see also.. New Mutual Aid Hotline Blocks dozens of Evictions, Threats and Toxic Capitalism

After another shocking illegal surprise eviction the Rimaia Free Uni grabbed an abandoned building in the Sant Antoni barrio where the project has put down community roots.Pablo Molano, center> his life and death were the inspiration of the latest New Rimaia

Inside the Free University you could live the revolution in miniature, all is decided in open assembly and almost always unanimously, with up to 70 people, 30 living there and 40 with projects. Living freely with huge enthusiasm and creativity. Continue reading “A New World in our Hearts: ‘La Rimaia’ Squat centre Evicted for 5th Time”

anonymous.. the first internet based super-consciousness.

 anonymous the first internet-based superconsciousness….    anonymous is a group, in the sense that a flock of birds is a group. how do you know they’re a group? because they’re travelling in the same direction. at any given moment, more birds could join, leave, peel off in another direction entirely.

– Chris Landers. Baltimore City Paper, 2 april 2008.

is anonymous anarchy?

To what extent does Anonymous subscribe to anarchist thought?


Gabriella Coleman draws a parallel between the online hacktivist group and the black bloc.

by Gabriella Coleman, shared with thanks           For many, the political movement known as Anonymous conjures one thing and one thing alone: anarchy. I have now seen this association made so many times, I thought it might be a good idea to lay out in some detail where the connections between Anonymous and anarchism might lie, dispel a few myths, and ask some questions for further exploration.

Continue reading “anonymous.. the first internet based super-consciousness.”

Indigenous Communities unite to fight Megaprojects in Chinantla Mountains, Oaxaca

 Etractivism is a war against the people

By Renata Bessi and Santiago Navarro F  at  Avispa Midia

The Chinantec people, inhabitants of the Cajonos River basin in the north of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, are carrying out an organizational process throughout their entire territory, the Chinantla, against economic projects that seek to commodify nature as a whole.

They are megaprojects such as mining, hydroelectric dams, highways, conservation projects, and, more recently, hydrocarbons. It is not a coincidence Chinantla is considered a priority of economic interest for the Mexican government. It houses the third largest tropical rainforest in Mexico. After the Lacandona jungle in Chiapas, and the Chimalapas in Oaxaca, it is the best preserved and one of the richest in biodiversity.

Unsustainable Extractivism destroys our land and water Continue reading “Indigenous Communities unite to fight Megaprojects in Chinantla Mountains, Oaxaca”

FREE ALPHABET PICTURE BOOK ABOUT EUROPE’S VIOLENT COLONIAL RACISM

by Eye Candy at AfroPunk        Spain-based Peruvian writer Daniela Ortiz’s new book is the history lesson I never got as a child but always needed.  free download HERE.

The ABC of Racist Europe seeks to expose how Europe’s racist, colonial laws came to be and can still be felt today in xenophobic migrant and refugee policies.

According to Telesur, the book began as part of an exhibit showcased earlier this month at The Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art in Middlesbrough, England.

“Each letter has an imperialist message, for example, the letter K was for King … where the image shows a king imprisoning Africans, an image that today would be unacceptable,” Continue reading “FREE ALPHABET PICTURE BOOK ABOUT EUROPE’S VIOLENT COLONIAL RACISM”

How Wonder Woman turned from a Hero to a War Crimes Supporter.

The wonder of imperial feminism

is a Palestinian writer and the author of the international bestselling novel, Mornings in Jenin (Bloomsbury 2010). She is also the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, an NGO for children.

  from Al Jazeera with thanks         When I was a little girl, like many women of my generation who grew up watching American television shows (even if they were dubbed in Arabic), I used to twirl and twirl, trying to attain super powers like Wonder Woman. I would twitch my nose to magically transform my surroundings, like Samantha from Bewitched.

Image result for bewitched..female powerThese female characters were exceptions among the docile housewives, the efficient secretaries, and damsels in distress that pervaded the popular media of my time. Wonder Woman and Samantha had the power to change their lives, even if that power had to remain hidden, forever a secret. Continue reading “How Wonder Woman turned from a Hero to a War Crimes Supporter.”