#social-revolution — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #social-revolution, aggregated by home.social.
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An Afro Solarpunk Future
Boston Ujima Project#afrofuture #solarpunk #SocialRevolution #anarchism #andrewism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpWUmut4f1U&si=k3Qadz3agdIJqGGm -
An Afro Solarpunk Future
Boston Ujima Project#afrofuture #solarpunk #SocialRevolution #anarchism #andrewism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpWUmut4f1U&si=k3Qadz3agdIJqGGm -
An Afro Solarpunk Future
Boston Ujima Project#afrofuture #solarpunk #SocialRevolution #anarchism #andrewism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpWUmut4f1U&si=k3Qadz3agdIJqGGm -
An Afro Solarpunk Future
Boston Ujima Project#afrofuture #solarpunk #SocialRevolution #anarchism #andrewism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpWUmut4f1U&si=k3Qadz3agdIJqGGm -
An Afro Solarpunk Future
Boston Ujima Project#afrofuture #solarpunk #SocialRevolution #anarchism #andrewism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpWUmut4f1U&si=k3Qadz3agdIJqGGm -
Greece: Eternal Honour to the Anarchist—Member of the Revolutionary Struggle, Lambros Fountas
HONOR FOREVER TO THE ANARCHIST –
MEMBER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE, LAMBROS FOUNTASOn March 10, 2010, in Dafni, preparations for a major operation by Revolutionary Struggle aimed at sabotaging the enforcement of the “memorandum” were in their final stages. The attempt to seize a vehicle that the organisation would use for this action resulted in a clash with the cops. Comrade Lambros Fountas, our beloved comrade-in-arms in the struggle, was killed. Nothing would ever be the same again.
The Revolutionary Struggle—the struggle to block the “memorandum,” the struggle to overthrow the ruling regime and bring about social revolution—suffered a severe blow. The organisation had publicly stated that it anticipated the Greek state’s bankruptcy as a consequence of the 2008 global economic crisis and had demonstrated the scale of its actions, primarily through the bombing of the stock exchange in September 2009. It had spoken of its goals and the opportunities that the economic crisis and the widespread delegitimisation of the political and economic system during that period would open up. It had publicly declared that the only way out of the crisis would be a Social Revolution.
A month later, the first crackdown against the organisation took place, along with the arrests.
The death of our comrade was a very significant event. It was significant not only for us, his comrades in Revolutionary Struggle, and not only for the anarchist movement in which he had been actively involved for many years and was particularly beloved by all his comrades. It was not only significant for Revolutionary Struggle, whose activities had been frozen for two years.
Above all, it was significant for the overwhelming majority of society, which was mercilessly battered by the devastating storm of loan agreements. Lambros was an integral part of a strategy of armed action that unfolded with the onset of the economic crisis and sought, through strikes of great political and economic significance, to prevent the political and economic system—which at that time was in a state of great instability and deep crisis—from regaining its stability.
For the loan agreements to be approved, social and political stability was a prerequisite. Armed action aimed at preventing the achievement of this goal, carried out through dynamic and effective measures, would have turned the Greek capitalist system into a dangerous arena because it would be vulnerable to armed attacks; this action would act as a brake on creditors’ decisions to transfer their capital to the country and lend to governments that would be unable to impose social and political control. Because the most decisive factor for the state and capital to overcome their systemic crises is the maintenance of faith in the system itself.
By 2010, confidence had collapsed within the global financial system. No economic or political actor trusted any credit or investment organisation or institution. No one trusted the Greek governments or the Greek banks. Because no one trusted any bank worldwide. In short, within the economic and political system, no one trusted anyone, and faith in the system of power itself had been deeply shaken.
The collapse of this trust was, for the first time in capitalist history, of such a large scale and significance. It was a structural factor in the collapse of capitalist functioning in the country and the de facto bankruptcy of the Greek state.
The loan agreements, with the onerous terms imposed, were intended to prevent an admission of bankruptcy. These were loan agreements designed to save the banks in Greece and Europe, to save the economic ruling class, to save the system—not the social base. This was the “bitter” realisation that the overwhelming majority of society eventually came to understand.
Comrade Lambros Fountas and his actions, the actions of Revolutionary Struggle during that period, sought to ensure that faith in the capitalist system and its re-stabilisation would not find fertile ground. Alongside the social reactions and uprisings of those years, Comrade Fountas’ actions could have become a significant factor in the overall struggle to prevent the “memorandum” from being passed. Comrade Lambros Fountas was destined to become the figure who embodied all the anxiety of society during that period. Because he was the armed fighter of all those who resisted the troika and the institutions, the Greek state, and the policies of social extermination for the economic “consolidation” of the capitalist system. Because he is the first and the last casualty of the struggle against the “memorandum.” Because he was and remains the voice of the necessity—then, now, and always—of the Social Revolution.
Today, sixteen years later, we are living through the aftermath of a profound political, economic, and social transformation that began with the 2008 economic crisis and the “memorandum” era. Because what was at stake in 2010 was not just the lending terms of the “memorandaum” the cuts to wages and pensions, the layoffs, or the closures of small businesses. Through these policies, a new model of power was established, and that period marked a historic turning point for the transformation of the capitalist system and modern state power. The “experiment” implemented in our country by lenders and supranational economic and political institutions did not concern only us; it concerned and continues to concern all countries.
It was an “experiment” that was imposed and cemented in the blood of an entire people, with thousands of suicides, with untreated illnesses, with children fainting in schools from hunger, with the conditions of a modern occupation and violence that became the norm for the years that followed, right up to the present day. It was an unprecedented class war. With this “experiment,” the centers of power in Europe and the world were asking “if a people like this, with its history of struggle and resistance, could endure the harsh measures we impose without revolting, then the most totalitarian control and the imposition of the most extreme measures of economic exploitation on any other people is possible.”
The fear of a social revolution in Greece in 2010 tormented all those in positions of political and economic power in Europe and beyond. They had explicitly stated, publicly and without mincing words, that a revolution in this country was a possible outcome. They themselves believed that there were subjective factors that could give impetus to such a development. Among the factors contributing to this fear, they considered the armed activities of Revolutionary Struggle, which were reaching their peak at that time, to be significant. Their fear was not limited to domestic destabilisation. A revolution, if it had taken place, would have swept up the countries of southern Europe and triggered a domino effect of capitalist collapses and social uprisings. Lambros Fountas’ actions sought to make this fear a reality.
In the end, the social backlash was not strong enough to prevent the imposition of the “memorandum,” a prevention that could not have been achieved without overthrowing the country’s political and economic power structure. This is the ultimate historical conclusion of that period.
Nothing has improved in the living conditions of the social majority, which is experiencing its own long-term and never-ending economic crisis that is reaching the brink of social collapse. On the contrary, the “resilience” shown by the social base in the face of the rapid rise in poverty during that period paved the way for the consolidation of the contemporary model of exploitation and oppression by the state and capital. The transformation that began then and was consolidated through ineffective social resistance gave rise to the cannibalistic system in a social context dominated by the illusion of the possibility of “individual detachment.” In other words, a context dominated by social defeatism, introversion, and resignation.
While official economic data paint a picture of economic prosperity for the wealthy in this country, the majority of people are sinking deeper and deeper into endless poverty. Greek debt is far higher than it was in 2010, yet faith in the Greek state’s resilience makes the country a model of subjugation for the extraction of profits and the security of capital investments. The loan agreements from the “memorandum” era will remain in force, along with their terms, for many more decades, and new debt will be added to the old, which future generations will be forced to shoulder.
As for the 2008 economic crisis, the greatest that modern capitalism has ever experienced, it never ended. The economic and political centers of power are still attempting to manage it with the same tools and formulas that created it. The concentration of economic, political, and social power in the hands of an ever-smaller few—which was the most decisive factor in the outbreak of the 2008 crisis— has now reached even more extreme levels, and class divisions across the globe have turned the gap between great wealth and poverty into an abyss.
The lack of a clear path out of the crisis is leading to the head-on transnational conflicts the world is currently experiencing. States, led by the United States, Israel, and Europe, are now revealing the true face of the state as an institution of centralized power and control over societies—manifested in brutal military and police violence, wars, and boundless repression. They are revealing in all its magnitude their hostile nature toward societies, the murderous nature of capitalism both within and beyond borders, and are bringing us ever closer to a catastrophic, all-out war.
The radical transformation of the system of power and the revelation of its true nature came about as a result of the dead ends created by the crisis, combined with the absence of radical social resistance and the unrestrained use of multifaceted methods to enforce social compliance with living conditions that are increasingly unbearable for the social majority. Housing, food, and health are no longer guaranteed for the largest segment of society, and even the minimal degree of their guarantee requires ever greater sacrifices. The social and political threat has ceased to exist following the suppression of the social resistance of 2010–12 and no longer concerns the centers of power. State control and violence are increasing more and more as this social threat from below fails to reemerge.
Since no revolutionary movement in 2010–2011 managed to halt or overturn the destructive policies that the state and capital had imposed on the country, a defeatist mindset—based on the assumption that nothing can be stopped or changed—has become ingrained in the social fabric. What the end of the struggles achieved back then was a profound psychological transformation of a society that accepted living without pride, without its dignity. Because these two factors were then, and will always be, decisive for a society that refuses to bow its head.
Comrade Lambros Fountas was, is, and will forever remain the example of the revolutionary who, with a weapon in hand, fought to prevent the defeat and subjugation of an entire society from becoming a reality. He will remain the light that enlivens the dignity, courage, and pride of anarchists, revolutionaries, and the oppressed. His struggle was the struggle of this society that did not want subjugation, did not want to bow its head.
Comrade Lambros Fountas embodies that unwavering dignity and fighting spirit that any struggle must possess to be victorious. That is why he is the champion of all the oppressed. He is and will forever remain the fighter who shows that the only way out of modern slavery, of daily social humiliation, the only way out of capitalist and state barbarism, wars, the threat of death—the only way out to a life of freedom, to a life of dignity—is the Social Revolution. We honor Lambros Fountas not only for who he was and what we knew of him, but also for everything he stood for. We honor him because he himself was the bearer of radical social change. He was the bearer of a society of equality and freedom
LAMBROS FOUNTAS WILL LIVE FOREVER IN THE STRUGGLE
FOR SOCIAL REVOLUTION
Pola Roupa
Nikos Maziotis, Domokos Prison
Source: https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1640103/
https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=30080 #anarchist #europe #greece #lambrosFountas #nikosMaziotis #polaRoupa #revolutionaryStruggle #socialRevolutionGreece: Eternal Honour to the Anarchist—Member of the Revolutionary Sruggle, Lambros Fountas
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Greece: Eternal Honour to the Anarchist—Member of the Revolutionary Struggle, Lambros Fountas
HONOR FOREVER TO THE ANARCHIST –
MEMBER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE, LAMBROS FOUNTASOn March 10, 2010, in Dafni, preparations for a major operation by Revolutionary Struggle aimed at sabotaging the enforcement of the “memorandum” were in their final stages. The attempt to seize a vehicle that the organisation would use for this action resulted in a clash with the cops. Comrade Lambros Fountas, our beloved comrade-in-arms in the struggle, was killed. Nothing would ever be the same again.
The Revolutionary Struggle—the struggle to block the “memorandum,” the struggle to overthrow the ruling regime and bring about social revolution—suffered a severe blow. The organisation had publicly stated that it anticipated the Greek state’s bankruptcy as a consequence of the 2008 global economic crisis and had demonstrated the scale of its actions, primarily through the bombing of the stock exchange in September 2009. It had spoken of its goals and the opportunities that the economic crisis and the widespread delegitimisation of the political and economic system during that period would open up. It had publicly declared that the only way out of the crisis would be a Social Revolution.
A month later, the first crackdown against the organisation took place, along with the arrests.
The death of our comrade was a very significant event. It was significant not only for us, his comrades in Revolutionary Struggle, and not only for the anarchist movement in which he had been actively involved for many years and was particularly beloved by all his comrades. It was not only significant for Revolutionary Struggle, whose activities had been frozen for two years.
Above all, it was significant for the overwhelming majority of society, which was mercilessly battered by the devastating storm of loan agreements. Lambros was an integral part of a strategy of armed action that unfolded with the onset of the economic crisis and sought, through strikes of great political and economic significance, to prevent the political and economic system—which at that time was in a state of great instability and deep crisis—from regaining its stability.
For the loan agreements to be approved, social and political stability was a prerequisite. Armed action aimed at preventing the achievement of this goal, carried out through dynamic and effective measures, would have turned the Greek capitalist system into a dangerous arena because it would be vulnerable to armed attacks; this action would act as a brake on creditors’ decisions to transfer their capital to the country and lend to governments that would be unable to impose social and political control. Because the most decisive factor for the state and capital to overcome their systemic crises is the maintenance of faith in the system itself.
By 2010, confidence had collapsed within the global financial system. No economic or political actor trusted any credit or investment organisation or institution. No one trusted the Greek governments or the Greek banks. Because no one trusted any bank worldwide. In short, within the economic and political system, no one trusted anyone, and faith in the system of power itself had been deeply shaken.
The collapse of this trust was, for the first time in capitalist history, of such a large scale and significance. It was a structural factor in the collapse of capitalist functioning in the country and the de facto bankruptcy of the Greek state.
The loan agreements, with the onerous terms imposed, were intended to prevent an admission of bankruptcy. These were loan agreements designed to save the banks in Greece and Europe, to save the economic ruling class, to save the system—not the social base. This was the “bitter” realisation that the overwhelming majority of society eventually came to understand.
Comrade Lambros Fountas and his actions, the actions of Revolutionary Struggle during that period, sought to ensure that faith in the capitalist system and its re-stabilisation would not find fertile ground. Alongside the social reactions and uprisings of those years, Comrade Fountas’ actions could have become a significant factor in the overall struggle to prevent the “memorandum” from being passed. Comrade Lambros Fountas was destined to become the figure who embodied all the anxiety of society during that period. Because he was the armed fighter of all those who resisted the troika and the institutions, the Greek state, and the policies of social extermination for the economic “consolidation” of the capitalist system. Because he is the first and the last casualty of the struggle against the “memorandum.” Because he was and remains the voice of the necessity—then, now, and always—of the Social Revolution.
Today, sixteen years later, we are living through the aftermath of a profound political, economic, and social transformation that began with the 2008 economic crisis and the “memorandum” era. Because what was at stake in 2010 was not just the lending terms of the “memorandaum” the cuts to wages and pensions, the layoffs, or the closures of small businesses. Through these policies, a new model of power was established, and that period marked a historic turning point for the transformation of the capitalist system and modern state power. The “experiment” implemented in our country by lenders and supranational economic and political institutions did not concern only us; it concerned and continues to concern all countries.
It was an “experiment” that was imposed and cemented in the blood of an entire people, with thousands of suicides, with untreated illnesses, with children fainting in schools from hunger, with the conditions of a modern occupation and violence that became the norm for the years that followed, right up to the present day. It was an unprecedented class war. With this “experiment,” the centers of power in Europe and the world were asking “if a people like this, with its history of struggle and resistance, could endure the harsh measures we impose without revolting, then the most totalitarian control and the imposition of the most extreme measures of economic exploitation on any other people is possible.”
The fear of a social revolution in Greece in 2010 tormented all those in positions of political and economic power in Europe and beyond. They had explicitly stated, publicly and without mincing words, that a revolution in this country was a possible outcome. They themselves believed that there were subjective factors that could give impetus to such a development. Among the factors contributing to this fear, they considered the armed activities of Revolutionary Struggle, which were reaching their peak at that time, to be significant. Their fear was not limited to domestic destabilisation. A revolution, if it had taken place, would have swept up the countries of southern Europe and triggered a domino effect of capitalist collapses and social uprisings. Lambros Fountas’ actions sought to make this fear a reality.
In the end, the social backlash was not strong enough to prevent the imposition of the “memorandum,” a prevention that could not have been achieved without overthrowing the country’s political and economic power structure. This is the ultimate historical conclusion of that period.
Nothing has improved in the living conditions of the social majority, which is experiencing its own long-term and never-ending economic crisis that is reaching the brink of social collapse. On the contrary, the “resilience” shown by the social base in the face of the rapid rise in poverty during that period paved the way for the consolidation of the contemporary model of exploitation and oppression by the state and capital. The transformation that began then and was consolidated through ineffective social resistance gave rise to the cannibalistic system in a social context dominated by the illusion of the possibility of “individual detachment.” In other words, a context dominated by social defeatism, introversion, and resignation.
While official economic data paint a picture of economic prosperity for the wealthy in this country, the majority of people are sinking deeper and deeper into endless poverty. Greek debt is far higher than it was in 2010, yet faith in the Greek state’s resilience makes the country a model of subjugation for the extraction of profits and the security of capital investments. The loan agreements from the “memorandum” era will remain in force, along with their terms, for many more decades, and new debt will be added to the old, which future generations will be forced to shoulder.
As for the 2008 economic crisis, the greatest that modern capitalism has ever experienced, it never ended. The economic and political centers of power are still attempting to manage it with the same tools and formulas that created it. The concentration of economic, political, and social power in the hands of an ever-smaller few—which was the most decisive factor in the outbreak of the 2008 crisis— has now reached even more extreme levels, and class divisions across the globe have turned the gap between great wealth and poverty into an abyss.
The lack of a clear path out of the crisis is leading to the head-on transnational conflicts the world is currently experiencing. States, led by the United States, Israel, and Europe, are now revealing the true face of the state as an institution of centralized power and control over societies—manifested in brutal military and police violence, wars, and boundless repression. They are revealing in all its magnitude their hostile nature toward societies, the murderous nature of capitalism both within and beyond borders, and are bringing us ever closer to a catastrophic, all-out war.
The radical transformation of the system of power and the revelation of its true nature came about as a result of the dead ends created by the crisis, combined with the absence of radical social resistance and the unrestrained use of multifaceted methods to enforce social compliance with living conditions that are increasingly unbearable for the social majority. Housing, food, and health are no longer guaranteed for the largest segment of society, and even the minimal degree of their guarantee requires ever greater sacrifices. The social and political threat has ceased to exist following the suppression of the social resistance of 2010–12 and no longer concerns the centers of power. State control and violence are increasing more and more as this social threat from below fails to reemerge.
Since no revolutionary movement in 2010–2011 managed to halt or overturn the destructive policies that the state and capital had imposed on the country, a defeatist mindset—based on the assumption that nothing can be stopped or changed—has become ingrained in the social fabric. What the end of the struggles achieved back then was a profound psychological transformation of a society that accepted living without pride, without its dignity. Because these two factors were then, and will always be, decisive for a society that refuses to bow its head.
Comrade Lambros Fountas was, is, and will forever remain the example of the revolutionary who, with a weapon in hand, fought to prevent the defeat and subjugation of an entire society from becoming a reality. He will remain the light that enlivens the dignity, courage, and pride of anarchists, revolutionaries, and the oppressed. His struggle was the struggle of this society that did not want subjugation, did not want to bow its head.
Comrade Lambros Fountas embodies that unwavering dignity and fighting spirit that any struggle must possess to be victorious. That is why he is the champion of all the oppressed. He is and will forever remain the fighter who shows that the only way out of modern slavery, of daily social humiliation, the only way out of capitalist and state barbarism, wars, the threat of death—the only way out to a life of freedom, to a life of dignity—is the Social Revolution. We honor Lambros Fountas not only for who he was and what we knew of him, but also for everything he stood for. We honor him because he himself was the bearer of radical social change. He was the bearer of a society of equality and freedom
LAMBROS FOUNTAS WILL LIVE FOREVER IN THE STRUGGLE
FOR SOCIAL REVOLUTION
Pola Roupa
Nikos Maziotis, Domokos Prison
Source: https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1640103/
https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=30080 #anarchist #europe #greece #lambrosFountas #nikosMaziotis #polaRoupa #revolutionaryStruggle #socialRevolutionGreece: Eternal Honour to the Anarchist—Member of the Revolutionary Sruggle, Lambros Fountas
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@WesRothMoney on YT!
You have TWO YEARS LEFT to prepare - Dr. Roman Yampolskiy ( an optimist 😉)
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@WesRothMoney on YT!
You have TWO YEARS LEFT to prepare - Dr. Roman Yampolskiy ( an optimist 😉)
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@WesRothMoney on YT!
You have TWO YEARS LEFT to prepare - Dr. Roman Yampolskiy ( an optimist 😉)
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@WesRothMoney on YT!
You have TWO YEARS LEFT to prepare - Dr. Roman Yampolskiy ( an optimist 😉)
-
@WesRothMoney on YT!
You have TWO YEARS LEFT to prepare - Dr. Roman Yampolskiy ( an optimist 😉)
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I'm an anarchist thats what the black flag and A in my handle mean
That means a lot of things to a lot of people although there are principles on power, authority, the nature of the state and how to do revolution (sometimes called praxis) that anarchists broadly agree on its that last part that we most often disagree on ime
A part of my theory of change is that revolution cannot be forced, broadly I mean that if you try to change society now with the customs and beliefs that people individually hold they will reconstruct hierarchies of oppression either consciously or not
One subject that often gets left out of leftist and anarchist spaces is non-human oppression, say we seize the means of production tomorrow and we organize society democratically and horizontally, with the rest of the culture unchanged would humans stop killing and oppressing non-humans? I choose this example bc I believe its the most stark.
The system has deeply poisoned our culture and our psychology, we have developed a learned helplessness so pervasive that for many it is easier to imagine the end of capitalism than the end of authority and hierarchy
So what do I propose: social revolution and prefigurative revolution, the first being that revolution starts at the interpersonal level, work with things that are inside of your control and embody your ideals to the best of your ability without giving into perfectionism or pessimism. The second idea prefiguration is linked, create social relations and organizations that are modeled after the world you want, build the new in the shell of the old.
It will be small at first, a book cycle club, a community fridge, a neighborhood group chat for emergency preparedness or community event planning. But if the ground is fertile and nurtured lovingly it will blossom, the benefits of community cooperation are material and compounding.
The road from these beginnings to what we could confidently call an anarchist society would not be straightforward it would be full of setbacks just like early capitalism faced and a full consideration of revolutionary organizing past this point is beyond the scope of this toot (check [1] you're interested in an essay recommendation about that)
but if I am right and this is the most resilient road to revolution then by the time we win the collapse of the state will have long been a forgone conclusion, just as a united but dispersed mycelium network can topple the tallest tree: we will have rotted the state's pillars of power by stumbling up onto our own feet and rendering it obsolete
I invite discussion and disagreements I will try to respond to as much as I can
[1]
Anark Constructing The Revolution, 2020
Essay version:
http://libraryqxxiqakubqv3dc2bend2koqsndbwox2johfywcatxie26bsad.onion/library/anark-constructing-the-revolution
(this is tor onion link it can't be opened in most browsers use the tor browser if you dont know where to start)
Video Essay Version:
https://youtu.be/W9K6ISx8QEQ
(please use an alternative youtube front end of your choice if possible google is evil)#Anarchism #Prefiguration #Revolution #SocialRevolution #Speciesism #HumanSupremacy #Capitalism
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I'm an anarchist thats what the black flag and A in my handle mean
That means a lot of things to a lot of people although there are principles on power, authority, the nature of the state and how to do revolution (sometimes called praxis) that anarchists broadly agree on its that last part that we most often disagree on ime
A part of my theory of change is that revolution cannot be forced, broadly I mean that if you try to change society now with the customs and beliefs that people individually hold they will reconstruct hierarchies of oppression either consciously or not
One subject that often gets left out of leftist and anarchist spaces is non-human oppression, say we seize the means of production tomorrow and we organize society democratically and horizontally, with the rest of the culture unchanged would humans stop killing and oppressing non-humans? I choose this example bc I believe its the most stark.
The system has deeply poisoned our culture and our psychology, we have developed a learned helplessness so pervasive that for many it is easier to imagine the end of capitalism than the end of authority and hierarchy
So what do I propose: social revolution and prefigurative revolution, the first being that revolution starts at the interpersonal level, work with things that are inside of your control and embody your ideals to the best of your ability without giving into perfectionism or pessimism. The second idea prefiguration is linked, create social relations and organizations that are modeled after the world you want, build the new in the shell of the old.
It will be small at first, a book cycle club, a community fridge, a neighborhood group chat for emergency preparedness or community event planning. But if the ground is fertile and nurtured lovingly it will blossom, the benefits of community cooperation are material and compounding.
The road from these beginnings to what we could confidently call an anarchist society would not be straightforward it would be full of setbacks just like early capitalism faced and a full consideration of revolutionary organizing past this point is beyond the scope of this toot (check [1] you're interested in an essay recommendation about that)
but if I am right and this is the most resilient road to revolution then by the time we win the collapse of the state will have long been a forgone conclusion, just as a united but dispersed mycelium network can topple the tallest tree: we will have rotted the state's pillars of power by stumbling up onto our own feet and rendering it obsolete
I invite discussion and disagreements I will try to respond to as much as I can
[1]
Anark Constructing The Revolution, 2020
Essay version:
http://libraryqxxiqakubqv3dc2bend2koqsndbwox2johfywcatxie26bsad.onion/library/anark-constructing-the-revolution
(this is tor onion link it can't be opened in most browsers use the tor browser if you dont know where to start)
Video Essay Version:
https://youtu.be/W9K6ISx8QEQ
(please use an alternative youtube front end of your choice if possible google is evil)#Anarchism #Prefiguration #Revolution #SocialRevolution #Speciesism #HumanSupremacy #Capitalism
-
I'm an anarchist thats what the black flag and A in my handle mean
That means a lot of things to a lot of people although there are principles on power, authority, the nature of the state and how to do revolution (sometimes called praxis) that anarchists broadly agree on its that last part that we most often disagree on ime
A part of my theory of change is that revolution cannot be forced, broadly I mean that if you try to change society now with the customs and beliefs that people individually hold they will reconstruct hierarchies of oppression either consciously or not
One subject that often gets left out of leftist and anarchist spaces is non-human oppression, say we seize the means of production tomorrow and we organize society democratically and horizontally, with the rest of the culture unchanged would humans stop killing and oppressing non-humans? I choose this example bc I believe its the most stark.
The system has deeply poisoned our culture and our psychology, we have developed a learned helplessness so pervasive that for many it is easier to imagine the end of capitalism than the end of authority and hierarchy
So what do I propose: social revolution and prefigurative revolution, the first being that revolution starts at the interpersonal level, work with things that are inside of your control and embody your ideals to the best of your ability without giving into perfectionism or pessimism. The second idea prefiguration is linked, create social relations and organizations that are modeled after the world you want, build the new in the shell of the old.
It will be small at first, a book cycle club, a community fridge, a neighborhood group chat for emergency preparedness or community event planning. But if the ground is fertile and nurtured lovingly it will blossom, the benefits of community cooperation are material and compounding.
The road from these beginnings to what we could confidently call an anarchist society would not be straightforward it would be full of setbacks just like early capitalism faced and a full consideration of revolutionary organizing past this point is beyond the scope of this toot (check [1] you're interested in an essay recommendation about that)
but if I am right and this is the most resilient road to revolution then by the time we win the collapse of the state will have long been a forgone conclusion, just as a united but dispersed mycelium network can topple the tallest tree: we will have rotted the state's pillars of power by stumbling up onto our own feet and rendering it obsolete
I invite discussion and disagreements I will try to respond to as much as I can
[1]
Anark Constructing The Revolution, 2020
Essay version:
http://libraryqxxiqakubqv3dc2bend2koqsndbwox2johfywcatxie26bsad.onion/library/anark-constructing-the-revolution
(this is tor onion link it can't be opened in most browsers use the tor browser if you dont know where to start)
Video Essay Version:
https://youtu.be/W9K6ISx8QEQ
(please use an alternative youtube front end of your choice if possible google is evil)#Anarchism #Prefiguration #Revolution #SocialRevolution #Speciesism #HumanSupremacy #Capitalism
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I'm an anarchist thats what the black flag and A in my handle mean
That means a lot of things to a lot of people although there are principles on power, authority, the nature of the state and how to do revolution (sometimes called praxis) that anarchists broadly agree on its that last part that we most often disagree on ime
A part of my theory of change is that revolution cannot be forced, broadly I mean that if you try to change society now with the customs and beliefs that people individually hold they will reconstruct hierarchies of oppression either consciously or not
One subject that often gets left out of leftist and anarchist spaces is non-human oppression, say we seize the means of production tomorrow and we organize society democratically and horizontally, with the rest of the culture unchanged would humans stop killing and oppressing non-humans? I choose this example bc I believe its the most stark.
The system has deeply poisoned our culture and our psychology, we have developed a learned helplessness so pervasive that for many it is easier to imagine the end of capitalism than the end of authority and hierarchy
So what do I propose: social revolution and prefigurative revolution, the first being that revolution starts at the interpersonal level, work with things that are inside of your control and embody your ideals to the best of your ability without giving into perfectionism or pessimism. The second idea prefiguration is linked, create social relations and organizations that are modeled after the world you want, build the new in the shell of the old.
It will be small at first, a book cycle club, a community fridge, a neighborhood group chat for emergency preparedness or community event planning. But if the ground is fertile and nurtured lovingly it will blossom, the benefits of community cooperation are material and compounding.
The road from these beginnings to what we could confidently call an anarchist society would not be straightforward it would be full of setbacks just like early capitalism faced and a full consideration of revolutionary organizing past this point is beyond the scope of this toot (check [1] you're interested in an essay recommendation about that)
but if I am right and this is the most resilient road to revolution then by the time we win the collapse of the state will have long been a forgone conclusion, just as a united but dispersed mycelium network can topple the tallest tree: we will have rotted the state's pillars of power by stumbling up onto our own feet and rendering it obsolete
I invite discussion and disagreements I will try to respond to as much as I can
[1]
Anark Constructing The Revolution, 2020
Essay version:
http://libraryqxxiqakubqv3dc2bend2koqsndbwox2johfywcatxie26bsad.onion/library/anark-constructing-the-revolution
(this is tor onion link it can't be opened in most browsers use the tor browser if you dont know where to start)
Video Essay Version:
https://youtu.be/W9K6ISx8QEQ
(please use an alternative youtube front end of your choice if possible google is evil)#Anarchism #Prefiguration #Revolution #SocialRevolution #Speciesism #HumanSupremacy #Capitalism
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I'm an anarchist thats what the black flag and A in my handle mean
That means a lot of things to a lot of people although there are principles on power, authority, the nature of the state and how to do revolution (sometimes called praxis) that anarchists broadly agree on its that last part that we most often disagree on ime
A part of my theory of change is that revolution cannot be forced, broadly I mean that if you try to change society now with the customs and beliefs that people individually hold they will reconstruct hierarchies of oppression either consciously or not
One subject that often gets left out of leftist and anarchist spaces is non-human oppression, say we seize the means of production tomorrow and we organize society democratically and horizontally, with the rest of the culture unchanged would humans stop killing and oppressing non-humans? I choose this example bc I believe its the most stark.
The system has deeply poisoned our culture and our psychology, we have developed a learned helplessness so pervasive that for many it is easier to imagine the end of capitalism than the end of authority and hierarchy
So what do I propose: social revolution and prefigurative revolution, the first being that revolution starts at the interpersonal level, work with things that are inside of your control and embody your ideals to the best of your ability without giving into perfectionism or pessimism. The second idea prefiguration is linked, create social relations and organizations that are modeled after the world you want, build the new in the shell of the old.
It will be small at first, a book cycle club, a community fridge, a neighborhood group chat for emergency preparedness or community event planning. But if the ground is fertile and nurtured lovingly it will blossom, the benefits of community cooperation are material and compounding.
The road from these beginnings to what we could confidently call an anarchist society would not be straightforward it would be full of setbacks just like early capitalism faced and a full consideration of revolutionary organizing past this point is beyond the scope of this toot (check [1] you're interested in an essay recommendation about that)
but if I am right and this is the most resilient road to revolution then by the time we win the collapse of the state will have long been a forgone conclusion, just as a united but dispersed mycelium network can topple the tallest tree: we will have rotted the state's pillars of power by stumbling up onto our own feet and rendering it obsolete
I invite discussion and disagreements I will try to respond to as much as I can
[1]
Anark Constructing The Revolution, 2020
Essay version:
http://libraryqxxiqakubqv3dc2bend2koqsndbwox2johfywcatxie26bsad.onion/library/anark-constructing-the-revolution
(this is tor onion link it can't be opened in most browsers use the tor browser if you dont know where to start)
Video Essay Version:
https://youtu.be/W9K6ISx8QEQ
(please use an alternative youtube front end of your choice if possible google is evil)#Anarchism #Prefiguration #Revolution #SocialRevolution #Speciesism #HumanSupremacy #Capitalism
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🚀 Prepariamoci ad accogliere un nuovo giocatore nel mondo dei social, ChatGPT è pronto per lo sbarco online! #ChatGPT #SocialRevolution
🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/hardware/chatgpt-si-prepara-ai-messaggi-diretti-social-2025-10-05
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🚀 Prepariamoci ad accogliere un nuovo giocatore nel mondo dei social, ChatGPT è pronto per lo sbarco online! #ChatGPT #SocialRevolution
🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/hardware/chatgpt-si-prepara-ai-messaggi-diretti-social-2025-10-05
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🚀 Prepariamoci ad accogliere un nuovo giocatore nel mondo dei social, ChatGPT è pronto per lo sbarco online! #ChatGPT #SocialRevolution
🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/hardware/chatgpt-si-prepara-ai-messaggi-diretti-social-2025-10-05
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📍 Instagram revolution: il mix perfetto tra Retweet e Snap Map sta per arrivare! La nostra social life sta per cambiare radicamente! #InstagramUpdates #SocialRevolution
🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/smartphone/instagram-introduce-due-nuove-funzioni-social-2025-08-07
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📍 Instagram revolution: il mix perfetto tra Retweet e Snap Map sta per arrivare! La nostra social life sta per cambiare radicamente! #InstagramUpdates #SocialRevolution
🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/smartphone/instagram-introduce-due-nuove-funzioni-social-2025-08-07
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📍 Instagram revolution: il mix perfetto tra Retweet e Snap Map sta per arrivare! La nostra social life sta per cambiare radicamente! #InstagramUpdates #SocialRevolution
🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/smartphone/instagram-introduce-due-nuove-funzioni-social-2025-08-07
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Griid isn’t just another app—it’s the fediverse’s first real social rebellion. Smart algorithms, zero data harvesting, real-time clout, and a chance for everyone to shine. No shadow puppets. No Big Tech control. Just raw vibes, smart tech, and full freedom.
#Griid #Fediverse #CloutScore #NoDataHarvesting #FreeInternet #SocialRevolution #BuiltDifferent #IndieDev #MastodonTech
🧠 Griid’s Algorithm System (Thread)
Here's how we're changing the fediverse forever 🧵👇 -
You Deserve a Corrupt Government – Here’s Why
https://youtu.be/M0TpzM0KqZA
#SelfResponsibility #TruthSeekers #MindControl #EsotericKnowledge #Philosophy #PoliticalAwakening #PersonalFreedom #ConspiracyTruth #PowerAndControl #BreakingTheIllusion #AwakenToTruth #CulturalShift #ChangeStartsWithin #FreedomMindset #NewWorldOrder #CorruptionExposed #MassAwakening #SocialRevolution #PsychologyOfControl #DeepState #MastodonTruth -
You Deserve a Corrupt Government – Here’s Why
https://youtu.be/M0TpzM0KqZA
#SelfResponsibility #TruthSeekers #MindControl #EsotericKnowledge #Philosophy #PoliticalAwakening #PersonalFreedom #ConspiracyTruth #PowerAndControl #BreakingTheIllusion #AwakenToTruth #CulturalShift #ChangeStartsWithin #FreedomMindset #NewWorldOrder #CorruptionExposed #MassAwakening #SocialRevolution #PsychologyOfControl #DeepState #MastodonTruth -
You Deserve a Corrupt Government – Here’s Why
https://youtu.be/M0TpzM0KqZA
#SelfResponsibility #TruthSeekers #MindControl #EsotericKnowledge #Philosophy #PoliticalAwakening #PersonalFreedom #ConspiracyTruth #PowerAndControl #BreakingTheIllusion #AwakenToTruth #CulturalShift #ChangeStartsWithin #FreedomMindset #NewWorldOrder #CorruptionExposed #MassAwakening #SocialRevolution #PsychologyOfControl #DeepState #MastodonTruth -
You Deserve a Corrupt Government – Here’s Why
https://youtu.be/M0TpzM0KqZA
#SelfResponsibility #TruthSeekers #MindControl #EsotericKnowledge #Philosophy #PoliticalAwakening #PersonalFreedom #ConspiracyTruth #PowerAndControl #BreakingTheIllusion #AwakenToTruth #CulturalShift #ChangeStartsWithin #FreedomMindset #NewWorldOrder #CorruptionExposed #MassAwakening #SocialRevolution #PsychologyOfControl #DeepState #MastodonTruth -
You Deserve a Corrupt Government – Here’s Why
https://youtu.be/M0TpzM0KqZA
#SelfResponsibility #TruthSeekers #MindControl #EsotericKnowledge #Philosophy #PoliticalAwakening #PersonalFreedom #ConspiracyTruth #PowerAndControl #BreakingTheIllusion #AwakenToTruth #CulturalShift #ChangeStartsWithin #FreedomMindset #NewWorldOrder #CorruptionExposed #MassAwakening #SocialRevolution #PsychologyOfControl #DeepState #MastodonTruth -
If you want to understand the #SpanishCivilWar's complexities, I strongly recommend Revolution and the State, by Danny Evans. He describes the large #anarchist #movement centered in #Catalonia, and how a multitude of organizations & strategic tendencies existed during the #CivilWar. While #anarchism struggled due to a lack of assistance from Western countries, and attacks by both fascists & Stalinists, compromises (e.g., joining the gov't) also forestalled the #SocialRevolution.
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If you want to understand the #SpanishCivilWar's complexities, I strongly recommend Revolution and the State, by Danny Evans. He describes the large #anarchist #movement centered in #Catalonia, and how a multitude of organizations & strategic tendencies existed during the #CivilWar. While #anarchism struggled due to a lack of assistance from Western countries, and attacks by both fascists & Stalinists, compromises (e.g., joining the gov't) also forestalled the #SocialRevolution.
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If you want to understand the #SpanishCivilWar's complexities, I strongly recommend Revolution and the State, by Danny Evans. He describes the large #anarchist #movement centered in #Catalonia, and how a multitude of organizations & strategic tendencies existed during the #CivilWar. While #anarchism struggled due to a lack of assistance from Western countries, and attacks by both fascists & Stalinists, compromises (e.g., joining the gov't) also forestalled the #SocialRevolution.
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If you want to understand the #SpanishCivilWar's complexities, I strongly recommend Revolution and the State, by Danny Evans. He describes the large #anarchist #movement centered in #Catalonia, and how a multitude of organizations & strategic tendencies existed during the #CivilWar. While #anarchism struggled due to a lack of assistance from Western countries, and attacks by both fascists & Stalinists, compromises (e.g., joining the gov't) also forestalled the #SocialRevolution.
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If you want to understand the #SpanishCivilWar's complexities, I strongly recommend Revolution and the State, by Danny Evans. He describes the large #anarchist #movement centered in #Catalonia, and how a multitude of organizations & strategic tendencies existed during the #CivilWar. While #anarchism struggled due to a lack of assistance from Western countries, and attacks by both fascists & Stalinists, compromises (e.g., joining the gov't) also forestalled the #SocialRevolution.
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Nestor Makhno died on July 25th, 1934. A committed anarchist communist all of his life, he suffered prison, where he contracted the TB that finally killed him, many wounds which left his body scarred in many places, and exile and poverty, yet he stuck to his ideas.
“The freedom of any individual carries within it the seed of a free and complete community without government, a free society that lives in organic and decentralised totality, united in its pursuit of the great human goal: Anarchist Communism!” Nestor Ivanovych Makhno.
Speech given on July 17th, 1921, to the defeated Makhnovist forces before they withdrew over the border to Romania : “The communism to which we aspire assumes that there is individual freedom, equality, self-management, initiative, creativity and plenty. We have spelled out our thoughts in our ‘Declarations.’ We have had the chance and we have striven to build a society on the libertarian principles of non-violence, but the Bolsheviks have not allowed us to proceed with this. They have turned the clash of ideas into a struggle against men. Not only has the entire State apparatus, despised by the people, with its functionaries and its prisons and so on, not been liquidated, but it has simply been re-cast. The Bolsheviks have proclaimed might as their only right.
The foundations of the society that the Bolshevik-Communists have laid, after eliminating all other parties and rivals, have nothing to do with communism. They amount to a closed, semi-military sect of ‘soldiers of Marx, blindly disciplined and with pretensions to infallibility, rejecting any quibbles and in hot pursuit of the goal of a totalitarian State which grants neither freedoms nor rights to its citizens and which peddles a novel brand of ideological racism. It breaks the people up into ‘their own ‘ and ‘the rest.’ In many respects, it is an absurdity. They deprive the toilers of all their dreams of a better life and they are building the most wretched, most unfair police society from which the joys of labor, creativity and the spirit of enterprise are to be banished.
Their experiments will be pointless and they will co-opt folk of the same outlook, authority will be extended through the conjuring up of unanswerable demagogues and dictators. They will rule and, by means of prisons and coercion, they will compel the toilers to work themselves to death for a glass of buttermilk … They will tear everything down and eliminate all who are not to the Party’s taste or ideologically in tune with it … They will devise an astronomical schedule of punishments …People’s sole preoccupation will be with survival in such frighteningly oppressive conditions. But it cannot continue forever. The strengthening of authority will inevitably lead to a complete psychological and ideological breakdown between those in charge and the toilers.
Comrades!
Be vigilant and do not cast aside your weapons for they will soon serve you again! Do not trust the Bolsheviks! We part with the feeling that we have done our revolutionary duty. Long live solidarity and unity of the toilers! Long live the third social revolution! My thanks to all of you for everything!”https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/07/26/commemorating-death-of-nestor-makhno/
#anarchist #europe #makhno #russianRevolution #socialRevolution #ukraine
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Nestor Makhno died on July 25th, 1934. A committed anarchist communist all of his life, he suffered prison, where he contracted the TB that finally killed him, many wounds which left his body scarred in many places, and exile and poverty, yet he stuck to his ideas.
“The freedom of any individual carries within it the seed of a free and complete community without government, a free society that lives in organic and decentralised totality, united in its pursuit of the great human goal: Anarchist Communism!” Nestor Ivanovych Makhno.
Speech given on July 17th, 1921, to the defeated Makhnovist forces before they withdrew over the border to Romania : “The communism to which we aspire assumes that there is individual freedom, equality, self-management, initiative, creativity and plenty. We have spelled out our thoughts in our ‘Declarations.’ We have had the chance and we have striven to build a society on the libertarian principles of non-violence, but the Bolsheviks have not allowed us to proceed with this. They have turned the clash of ideas into a struggle against men. Not only has the entire State apparatus, despised by the people, with its functionaries and its prisons and so on, not been liquidated, but it has simply been re-cast. The Bolsheviks have proclaimed might as their only right.
The foundations of the society that the Bolshevik-Communists have laid, after eliminating all other parties and rivals, have nothing to do with communism. They amount to a closed, semi-military sect of ‘soldiers of Marx, blindly disciplined and with pretensions to infallibility, rejecting any quibbles and in hot pursuit of the goal of a totalitarian State which grants neither freedoms nor rights to its citizens and which peddles a novel brand of ideological racism. It breaks the people up into ‘their own ‘ and ‘the rest.’ In many respects, it is an absurdity. They deprive the toilers of all their dreams of a better life and they are building the most wretched, most unfair police society from which the joys of labor, creativity and the spirit of enterprise are to be banished.
Their experiments will be pointless and they will co-opt folk of the same outlook, authority will be extended through the conjuring up of unanswerable demagogues and dictators. They will rule and, by means of prisons and coercion, they will compel the toilers to work themselves to death for a glass of buttermilk … They will tear everything down and eliminate all who are not to the Party’s taste or ideologically in tune with it … They will devise an astronomical schedule of punishments …People’s sole preoccupation will be with survival in such frighteningly oppressive conditions. But it cannot continue forever. The strengthening of authority will inevitably lead to a complete psychological and ideological breakdown between those in charge and the toilers.
Comrades!
Be vigilant and do not cast aside your weapons for they will soon serve you again! Do not trust the Bolsheviks! We part with the feeling that we have done our revolutionary duty. Long live solidarity and unity of the toilers! Long live the third social revolution! My thanks to all of you for everything!”https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/07/26/commemorating-death-of-nestor-makhno/
#anarchist #europe #makhno #russianRevolution #socialRevolution #ukraine
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After connivance in the brutal assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse three years ago and then imposing its first feckless de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry and now his equally subservient successor, Garry Conille, U.S. imperialism in cahoots with the Haitian oligarchy is presently working to set in place a Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) with the same actors and sectors from Haiti’s political landscape that it has been using for decades.
The puppet-master’s principal goal is to put in place an “elected” (in fact, selected) politician who will sign the Global Fragility Act (GFA) bilateral agreement (for which Haiti is the test case), which will tighten Washington’s neocolonial grip on Haiti and sharpen the exploitation and economic enslavement of its people. The sell-outs of the Transitional Presidential Council (CPT), in their cowardice and greed for power and money, are too happy to comply.
This electoral process is in no way intended to create a more democratic, peaceful, progressive, humane, or just society. Far from it. Like a magician’s trick, it is merely a way of making us accept the unacceptable: yet another rotten client regime tailor-made to serve the needs of foreign capitalists and their local oligarchy allies, incapable of implementing any truly popular or equitable policies.
The Haitian people, particularly Haitian youth, will not be guaranteed any future, because imperialism never has and never will promote a national development program capable of meeting people’s immediate needs.
Sure, they might bring in a few more sweatshops in which the starving, teeming underclass might find an irregular job in poor conditions sewing clothes or assembling electronics for a slave-labor wage of $5 a day. After all, that is the GFA’s whole raison d’être: to find workers to replace those lost in China, with which the U.S. is preparing to go to war.
But the U.S. client regime in Haiti will not offer any fulfilling or enriching employment, training, or university courses that could uplift our people, so the people’s plight will continue to worsen as it has for years.
In short, the ballyhooed elections will be nothing more than a scam to parachute in new neocolonial overseers and “legalize” their rule while deepening the Haiti masses’ impoverishment and servitude. Worse yet, the foreign and local bourgeoisies will accuse their victims of being responsible for their own pauperization and the ensuing social woes.
Underdevelopment’s barbarity generates violence and terror. We have seen it shred Haiti’s collaborative culture and social fabric by making people do desperate and even criminal acts to survive. If the transnational ruling class and its local subordinates had even a drop of concern for the Haitian people, they would have acted differently. They would have upheld, as the unenforced 1987 Haitian Constitution so piously, hypocritically, and ironically does, the most fundamental human rights to food, shelter, healthcare, education, and a decent life for every human being. They could and should have given our fellow citizens the hospitals, clinics, schools, sanitation, roads, electricity, jobs, and public services – particularly in the ghettos and working-class neighborhoods – to make life bearable, peace obtainable, and dreams possible.
Instead, the ruling classes – owners of banks, factories, land, big commerce, and ports – used the state power that they bought to tax, terrorize, massacre, and oppress the Haitian working class, while embezzling millions from public funds like the $13 billion given to the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (CIRH) after the 2010 earthquake, the PetroCaribe fund, the National Education Fund (FNE), and the Social Security fund, leaving the Haitian masses to their own devices. They literally pushed Haiti’s proletariat and peasants into insecurity and desperation.
Haiti’s oligarchy, secure in their high-walled mountain fortresses with swimming pools, tennis courts, shooting ranges, and helicopter pads, will never make a mea culpa, much less a self-criticism, for treating the ghettos’ residents worse than animals and forcing them into (then blaming them for resorting to) self-destructive means of survival that include banditry and kidnapping.
That is why the only recourse of these anti-national bourgeois traitors is to strengthen the police and invite in (for the third time in three decades, again, unconstitutionally) foreign armies, which today are under Kenya’s purported leadership. At the end of August, soldiers from Jamaica will join them, according to U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Dennis Bruce Hankins. Meanwhile, the oligarchs and their politicians, following Washington’s cues, laugh and scoff at the proposal by the armed groups – which were spawned by the ruling classes’ cynical policies – to even have a seat at the table where Haiti’s future is being decided. The ruling class will only accept the armed groups’ complete, unconditional surrender or annihilation.
This unachievable goal will only fuel a further bloody escalation of violence and insecurity which will be fantastically more costly than simply providing services and support to the poor.
Some have been distracted by the latest scandal in the halls of power: a vulgar, verbal altercation – which reportedly almost came to fisticuffs – between current Prime Minister Conille and former Prime Minister Claude Joseph at the private residence of CPT member Louis Gérald Gilles. This was simply a falling out among thieves. It was an argument between the corrupted, on behalf of their corrupters, over who would get what in the plundering of state coffers. None of those present at that meeting, or any of the CPT traitors, give a damn about Haiti or its people, only their own pockets.
It is up to the deprived population of impoverished working-class neighborhoods, hungry to define their priorities, to make their demands prevail, and to organize themselves to change their destiny. It’s a question of survival or death!
The Haitian masses (left) must join in solidarity with the protestors in Africa, like those in Kenya (right) to reclaim their self-determination.To reclaim Haiti’s future, there is an urgent need for workers and young people, supported by the revolutionary intelligentsia in Haiti and its diaspora, to unite in order to sweep away this system, these imperialist agents who create the policies of poverty and austerity, in Haiti… and also Kenya. The people must not give up. They must stay the course against imperialist domination, against the entire political class which has turned its back on the needs of millions of poorly housed, poorly fed, and poorly educated families, citizens unable to meet their daily needs.
If ever there was a chance for a second social revolution in Haiti, it is now. There is not one legitimate, elected Haitian official that the imperialists can pretend to defend. Both North American and European imperialisms are collapsing. Biden, Trudeau, and Macron all have approval ratings at around 30% or below. They are dramatically losing their wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen, and the Sahel. Even their proxy, Kenya, is hobbled by debt and mass protests.
Let Haiti’s popular masses join those in Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, and increasingly Kenya, Chad, Benin, and Sudan in holding high the torch of rebellion, saying no to imperialism, and reclaiming their self determination, just as our ancestors did.
#antiImperialism #caribbean #haiti #socialRevolution #usImperialism
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After connivance in the brutal assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse three years ago and then imposing its first feckless de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry and now his equally subservient successor, Garry Conille, U.S. imperialism in cahoots with the Haitian oligarchy is presently working to set in place a Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) with the same actors and sectors from Haiti’s political landscape that it has been using for decades.
The puppet-master’s principal goal is to put in place an “elected” (in fact, selected) politician who will sign the Global Fragility Act (GFA) bilateral agreement (for which Haiti is the test case), which will tighten Washington’s neocolonial grip on Haiti and sharpen the exploitation and economic enslavement of its people. The sell-outs of the Transitional Presidential Council (CPT), in their cowardice and greed for power and money, are too happy to comply.
This electoral process is in no way intended to create a more democratic, peaceful, progressive, humane, or just society. Far from it. Like a magician’s trick, it is merely a way of making us accept the unacceptable: yet another rotten client regime tailor-made to serve the needs of foreign capitalists and their local oligarchy allies, incapable of implementing any truly popular or equitable policies.
The Haitian people, particularly Haitian youth, will not be guaranteed any future, because imperialism never has and never will promote a national development program capable of meeting people’s immediate needs.
Sure, they might bring in a few more sweatshops in which the starving, teeming underclass might find an irregular job in poor conditions sewing clothes or assembling electronics for a slave-labor wage of $5 a day. After all, that is the GFA’s whole raison d’être: to find workers to replace those lost in China, with which the U.S. is preparing to go to war.
But the U.S. client regime in Haiti will not offer any fulfilling or enriching employment, training, or university courses that could uplift our people, so the people’s plight will continue to worsen as it has for years.
In short, the ballyhooed elections will be nothing more than a scam to parachute in new neocolonial overseers and “legalize” their rule while deepening the Haiti masses’ impoverishment and servitude. Worse yet, the foreign and local bourgeoisies will accuse their victims of being responsible for their own pauperization and the ensuing social woes.
Underdevelopment’s barbarity generates violence and terror. We have seen it shred Haiti’s collaborative culture and social fabric by making people do desperate and even criminal acts to survive. If the transnational ruling class and its local subordinates had even a drop of concern for the Haitian people, they would have acted differently. They would have upheld, as the unenforced 1987 Haitian Constitution so piously, hypocritically, and ironically does, the most fundamental human rights to food, shelter, healthcare, education, and a decent life for every human being. They could and should have given our fellow citizens the hospitals, clinics, schools, sanitation, roads, electricity, jobs, and public services – particularly in the ghettos and working-class neighborhoods – to make life bearable, peace obtainable, and dreams possible.
Instead, the ruling classes – owners of banks, factories, land, big commerce, and ports – used the state power that they bought to tax, terrorize, massacre, and oppress the Haitian working class, while embezzling millions from public funds like the $13 billion given to the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (CIRH) after the 2010 earthquake, the PetroCaribe fund, the National Education Fund (FNE), and the Social Security fund, leaving the Haitian masses to their own devices. They literally pushed Haiti’s proletariat and peasants into insecurity and desperation.
Haiti’s oligarchy, secure in their high-walled mountain fortresses with swimming pools, tennis courts, shooting ranges, and helicopter pads, will never make a mea culpa, much less a self-criticism, for treating the ghettos’ residents worse than animals and forcing them into (then blaming them for resorting to) self-destructive means of survival that include banditry and kidnapping.
That is why the only recourse of these anti-national bourgeois traitors is to strengthen the police and invite in (for the third time in three decades, again, unconstitutionally) foreign armies, which today are under Kenya’s purported leadership. At the end of August, soldiers from Jamaica will join them, according to U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Dennis Bruce Hankins. Meanwhile, the oligarchs and their politicians, following Washington’s cues, laugh and scoff at the proposal by the armed groups – which were spawned by the ruling classes’ cynical policies – to even have a seat at the table where Haiti’s future is being decided. The ruling class will only accept the armed groups’ complete, unconditional surrender or annihilation.
This unachievable goal will only fuel a further bloody escalation of violence and insecurity which will be fantastically more costly than simply providing services and support to the poor.
Some have been distracted by the latest scandal in the halls of power: a vulgar, verbal altercation – which reportedly almost came to fisticuffs – between current Prime Minister Conille and former Prime Minister Claude Joseph at the private residence of CPT member Louis Gérald Gilles. This was simply a falling out among thieves. It was an argument between the corrupted, on behalf of their corrupters, over who would get what in the plundering of state coffers. None of those present at that meeting, or any of the CPT traitors, give a damn about Haiti or its people, only their own pockets.
It is up to the deprived population of impoverished working-class neighborhoods, hungry to define their priorities, to make their demands prevail, and to organize themselves to change their destiny. It’s a question of survival or death!
The Haitian masses (left) must join in solidarity with the protestors in Africa, like those in Kenya (right) to reclaim their self-determination.To reclaim Haiti’s future, there is an urgent need for workers and young people, supported by the revolutionary intelligentsia in Haiti and its diaspora, to unite in order to sweep away this system, these imperialist agents who create the policies of poverty and austerity, in Haiti… and also Kenya. The people must not give up. They must stay the course against imperialist domination, against the entire political class which has turned its back on the needs of millions of poorly housed, poorly fed, and poorly educated families, citizens unable to meet their daily needs.
If ever there was a chance for a second social revolution in Haiti, it is now. There is not one legitimate, elected Haitian official that the imperialists can pretend to defend. Both North American and European imperialisms are collapsing. Biden, Trudeau, and Macron all have approval ratings at around 30% or below. They are dramatically losing their wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen, and the Sahel. Even their proxy, Kenya, is hobbled by debt and mass protests.
Let Haiti’s popular masses join those in Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, and increasingly Kenya, Chad, Benin, and Sudan in holding high the torch of rebellion, saying no to imperialism, and reclaiming their self determination, just as our ancestors did.
#antiImperialism #caribbean #haiti #socialRevolution #usImperialism
-
The 1971 novel MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien is a #SocialJustice #SocialRevolution #ClimateCrisis #socialist story.
I first read that book 37 years ago, and I just now realized this.
#books
#literature
#ChildrensLiterature
#KidLit
#SupportLibraries
#BanTheBookBans
#BanTheFascistsNotTheBooks -
The 1971 novel MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien is a #SocialJustice #SocialRevolution #ClimateCrisis #socialist story.
I first read that book 37 years ago, and I just now realized this.
#books
#literature
#ChildrensLiterature
#KidLit
#SupportLibraries
#BanTheBookBans
#BanTheFascistsNotTheBooks -
The 1971 novel MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien is a #SocialJustice #SocialRevolution #ClimateCrisis #socialist story.
I first read that book 37 years ago, and I just now realized this.
#books
#literature
#ChildrensLiterature
#KidLit
#SupportLibraries
#BanTheBookBans
#BanTheFascistsNotTheBooks -
The 1971 novel MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien is a #SocialJustice #SocialRevolution #ClimateCrisis #socialist story.
I first read that book 37 years ago, and I just now realized this.
#books
#literature
#ChildrensLiterature
#KidLit
#SupportLibraries
#BanTheBookBans
#BanTheFascistsNotTheBooks -
The 1971 novel MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien is a #SocialJustice #SocialRevolution #ClimateCrisis #socialist story.
I first read that book 37 years ago, and I just now realized this.
#books
#literature
#ChildrensLiterature
#KidLit
#SupportLibraries
#BanTheBookBans
#BanTheFascistsNotTheBooks -
Revisiting Social Revolution in the Aftermath of 2020
#SocialRevolution #Anarchist -
Revisiting Social Revolution in the Aftermath of 2020
#SocialRevolution #Anarchist -
Revisiting Social Revolution in the Aftermath of 2020
#SocialRevolution #Anarchist -
Revisiting Social Revolution in the Aftermath of 2020
#SocialRevolution #Anarchist -
“Our task as anarchists, our main preoccupation and greatest desire, is to see the social revolution come about: a terrible upheaval of men and institutions which finally succeeds in putting an end to exploitation and establishing the reign of justice.
For we anarchists the revolution is our guide, our constant point of reference, no matter what we are doing or what problem we are concerned with. The anarchy we want will not be possible without the painful revolutionary break. If we want to avoid turning this into no more than a dream we must struggle to destroy the State and the exploiters through revolution.”
-Alfredo Bonanno, Why Insurrection?Few anarchists today have any speak of social revolution. Many laugh off or roll their eyes at the mention of it or worse, talk about realism and reform. The few who talk talk about it as if it were a religious desire or an otherworldly force. But what is social revolution, and what is anarchy without the social revolution? A desire, a goal, an over arching project of our entire lives – without it, what are we, what are we doing, and why?
The anarchist movements in the U.S. today are largely a reactive force, always waiting for another movement or uprising to come along to attach ourselves to. Emptying anarchy of its content, anarchists are content to be the militant auxiliary or informal organizational vanguard of social movements or simply sit back and look for forms of anarchy in other peoples and places so we can rest assured that anarchy is a latent impulse in all peoples, that we are less alone than we really are and that it’s a simple matter of time before everything falls into place. If I were to sum it up, I would say that there is a great confusion about what it means to be an anarchist and what it is anarchists aspire to.
The last time I spoke to someone about the idea of revolution the person responded with how it has become such a meaningless word. I couldn’t agree more, but the conclusions we drew from this were totally different. For him it meant that we shouldn’t bother with the idea. For me it means that we must return to the basics of anarchy – reexamine, explore and draw out our ideals to their conclusions and the means to realize them lest they get captured and killed by the enemy like what has happened with once dangerous ideas like Direct Action, Mutual Aid, Anti-Authoritarianism and Free Association.
Our ideals and actions – what anarchism is and what it means to be, act, fight and live as an anarchist – are not static, unchanging things. They must be continually gone back to and re-examined or else we will unconsciously fall into paths and ideas defined and re-defined by those who aren’t anarchists. It’s no different than when we don’t examine our own lives and fall into unconscious patterns and suddenly wake up 5 years down the line somewhere we don’t recognize and someone we didn’t want to be. It’s the same because anarchy, too, must be lived and examined.
So this is my small contribution to the re-examination of anarchy with a particular focus on the concept of social revolution, a long neglected desire gathering dust in the old tomes and broken dreams of anarchists past. I hope to take it out, dust it off a little and rekindle its fire to help us orient ourselves in struggle. Anarchy isn’t merely a beautiful idea to be dreamt about yet never realized but it is a concrete condition of possibility – something that can be realized at any point in time but only if we set about the task of realizing it ourselves. But we will not stumble our way into anarchy, without an idea of the ways and means to get there we will find ourselves in a great confusion, running around in circles conflating ourselves with reform movements, labor movements, leftist movements, helping others realize their goals but finding ourselves no closer to our own. No, we need to know our goals and desires, we need to study and examine the means and processes to actualize them, we need to dig into the grand process of destruction and creation and get re-acquainted with it.
I do this as much for myself as for others because I am tired of half baked ideas leading to half baked action, of being led around by others’ whims or waiting around for someone or something else rather than concretely moving towards something. Because I am tired of stopping half way because I have no conception of what to do, or what could happen, next.
I can no longer be unsure, I have one life to live and it is what I wager each day I take up the fight for anarchy.
A Personal Reflection
For the longest time I was among those who didn’t think or care about revolution. It didn’t matter to me, all that mattered was the fight today. But you go and go and go and all the time you are going you’re not thinking, not reflecting. It wasn’t until I went to jail that I took time to slow down and think and reflect, because that’s all you could do in jail. Suddenly the immortality of youth was beginning to wear off – in the previous years, and years to come, friends and comrades have been intensely injured, some went to jail and prison, some were murdered by the weight of the world through suicide and overdose. The stakes were real and the consequences were real and I couldn’t afford to run around without thinking anymore.
At a certain point you have to ask – what am I in this for? Where are we going with this? What’s the point? What even is the anarchy I’m risking myself for? I think everyone gets there eventually. For most people there isn’t an answer and they drop off and try to “get their life together” and return to the bloody complicity of normality, or they try to keep going as they have until their life and/or body falls apart and they drop off, or they die.
The rest of us try to find something.
In jail I read a lot – Alfredo Bonanno, Assata Shakur, Ursula K. LeGuin, and the works, exploits and dreams of various other anonymous or otherwise lesser know anarchists, revolutionaries and rebels. When I got out I kept reading and kept thinking while trying to get my feet back on the ground. Then 2020 came, both the pandemic and the riots. It’s these two events that put things in perspective for me – opened my eyes to the possibilities and the horrors.
Me and some comrades went to Minneapolis – we saw the flames, the joy, the power but we also bore witness to the police, military and fascist repression on a scale we hadn’t experienced before. We returned to Olympia to experience for a few months a total power over the city. Everything was smashed and every night we would come out and smash more. We never thought we would get to this point and it was obvious we never thought beyond it because the same question came up over and over – now what?
Insurrection came and ripped space and time from the vicious maws of the state – its forces in retreat. But an opening is just an opening and we still have to make the conscious choice to walk through but we were unprepared – perhaps even scared – to ask important questions. Questions of land, of food, of expropriation, of arms (and particularly in ways that disempowered the professional ‘security’ teams – organized petty authoritarians – that bullied, injured and killed more of “us” than they ever did of cops and fascists – rest in power Antonio Mays Jr).
Downtown cores were wrecked, state security forces were in retreat, yet our everyday lives were untouched. We returned to our largely segregated neighborhoods which remained untouched, many of us still had to return to jobs or sleeping in cars or shelters or on the streets. The old forms of power – misogyny, white supremacy, citizenism, settler anxieties and the old baggage of many people’s class position still persisted and the struggle against these were pushed aside “for the movement” while numerous people on the receiving end of these forms of petty authoritarian domination were forced out. It was clear quickly that “the movement” had replaced the insurrection – the project of our very lives.
Without a vision, a goal, a total project and deep understanding of it we were unable to even imagine taking the opening which was forced open. We couldn’t grasp the totality of the project we were embarking on, only recognizing the streets as a terrain of struggle yet nowhere else.
And then the opening closed.
It’s in these past few years since and in the wake of the collapse of the anarchist movements here in which I’ve been doing the most thinking, studying and reflecting. Slowly in the last year we’ve really begun to re-emerge and yet still we are largely making the same, unconscious mistakes as before of waiting for another movement or uprising and attaching ourselves to it – of being reactive because we don’t think about where we are trying to go, of relegating Anarchism simply to a form of organizing social struggles and emptying it of its specific content.
It’s this desire to not repeat these mistakes of the past, to no longer aimlessly run around in circles or make complex excuses for waiting, to fully embrace Anarchy and delve into the self discovery of what that means that have brought me to the reexamination of the basics of anarchy and in particular the idea of social revolution – a total view of the project of destruction and transformation in all it’s facets, imperfections and particularities.
Social Revolution
The great process of destruction and creation. Some imagine this as a singular moment of battle after which we shall be free. Some see it like a force of nature that will come regardless of what we do – or specifically that we cannot do anything to make it come faster – to justify waiting forever. Others, also seeing it in a religious or natural manner, say it will never come so better to toss it aside, forget about it, and simply act.
It is neither mystical, nor a force of nature, nor something that happens outside of and to us but a concrete process which we undertake. It’s constantly beginning but it has no end because it is the project of our lives – how we live, how we understand ourselves, how we relate to others and the world around us.
In this way we talk of social revolution rather than Political Revolution like the Communists, Socialists, Democrats and Fascists do. The Political is concerned with the taking of power and exerting it over others, the administration of people and things, while the social is concerned with changing the very fabric of our lives – an undertaking no power can demand of us, force upon us, or undertake for us. It’s the very essence of autonomous self organization, we have to do it ourselves for ourselves.
It’s at the same time Individualistic and Collective and does away with the distinction all together. Individualistic because the changing of relations starts at the level of the individual – from the moment we decide to be done with our old selves, be done with submission, with the humiliations thrust upon us by this world. When we begin to see and understand oppression, our suffering and our complicity in the suffering of others, and undergo a process of internal transformation. Collective because once we begin we can no longer turn back, forget, return to our old selves and very quickly we come upon the violent limits of this world – the landlord, the boss, the police and every petty authoritarian along the way. We begin to understand that our lives, our freedom, is bound in the lives and freedom of the Other, that we are not an island, that we rely on other people. We also realize that we are weak. By ourselves we are at the mercy of the dominators, we can strike out in small ways and at first it is freeing but quickly we come face to face with the enormity of the world of horrors. It’s at this point we reach out for the Others and for the first time stumble awkwardly through how to be together on our own terms – to add up our Individual power to make a Collective power that doesn’t diminish but empowers. All this to live better and fuller. All this to attack and for the first time claim our lives and our futures.
It is a dance between Destruction and Creation. We Destroy our old selves and the baggage of this world – the inhibitions, the roles thrust onto us, the small ways we keep crawling back to the Masters. Knowing the bourgeoisie, the nationalists, the colonists, the authoritarians won’t simply give up their power – that is what police, armies and militias are for, after all – we lay waste to the old world to clear the time and space for ourselves. It is only with this Destruction that we can talk of Creation – we destroy our old selves to open the possibilities to – for the first time – a free and full existence that is determined on our terms. We destroy the old world and its wretched defenders to claw out the space and time to experiment with all the ways we can exist together. One does not exist without the other.
This is the essence of social revolution, it is conscious steps we take day by day inside ourselves and with each other that is both wildly destructive and beautifully creative. If all we do is think about it, it will be nothing as we are not doing it. If we sit, examine and debate its nature it will be nothing because we are not doing it. It is not a matter of belief, it doesn’t matter if you don’t believe in it or care about it because it is something we do, do for our entire lives and it is only by doing does it come to be.
This is all well and good, but it’s still too vague for my taste, so let’s go a little further.
Here is my greatest desire: Anarchy, the autonomy of the individual in the freedom of association assured by the full, free, and equitable access to the means of life, joy and self fulfillment. The understanding that all that exists and will exist is so by the collective effort of all living creatures since the beginning of life and as such it is the rightful collective inheritance of all living creatures, belonging to us all, simply by virtue of birth. It is the negation of authority and hierarchy, the universal emancipation of all living creature from all forms of domination – to neither rule nor be ruled.
It is this view of anarchy which shapes my understanding of social revolution and the process in which we bring it to be. For me, there is no difference between our ends and means, our means must also be our ends – this is why we oppose political parties, vanguardism, a military discipline, bureaucracy and alienating structures that subdue the individual. Not just on tactical grounds, but for the fact that to try to attain anti-authoritarian ends through authoritarian means is an inherent negation of anarchy. It is to explicitly say that means and principles of anarchy are not up to the task of its realization.
The means in which we realize revolution will give anarchist principles their precise historical content – individual autonomy, direct action, the refusal of mediation and compromise, freedom of association, solidarity and mutual aid, etc. Directly putting these into practice in the insurrectionary moment will be chaotic, many will accuse the process and the new individuals it creates of going too far – first and foremost among the terrified pearl clutchers will be those who know that a person who has the means to directly satisfy their needs cannot so easily be managed, mediated, controlled and passed through the gamut of half way measures and incrementalism.
Realism, slow steps, transitory stages will not curb the desires of the barbarous individual born of the insurrection. The revolutionary process is aborted by half measures and it is from the corpse of this process that the monster of the reaction is born and tightens around our necks its claws of Law and Order – a reality we are currently living in the aftermath of the 2020 insurrection.
The first and most important part of the revolutionary process is the abolition of private property – in all of its forms from land and capital to food, clothing, shelter, etc. – by a total and complete expropriation expressed in the opening up and looting of all stores and warehouses, taking stock of all empty houses and apartments and letting those who need them house themselves, the refusal of paying or recognizing rents and debts, the take over and self-organization, mass abandonment, or destruction of all workplaces and opening up their use to all.
This is the actualization of the phrase “Everything for everyone” and its negation is the establishment of a revolutionary dollar, a barter system, labor vouchers. The very first revolutionary act is the destruction of Capitalism, exchange economics and the wage system by the immediate self organization by the exploited to assure – through arms – that everyone has the means of access to food, clothing, dignified housing without any intermediary or committee.
This is the first expression of self organization and the revolutionary process lives or dies by it.
What comes next is an uncontrollable extension of fire, self organization and collectivization reaching into every corner of the old world.
The destruction of all records and torching of all financial and property based institutions – banks, treasuries, debt collectors, real estate, property management, etc.
The re-appropriation of the pool of collective knowledge and skill and the self organization of social life to abolish the division of labor which brings an end to the reign of specialists.
The looting of gun stores and armories for the free arming of all peoples and self organization of revolutionary violence – rejecting uniforms, ranks, professionalization, militarization and the armed vanguard – for the routing of state security forces and opening the way to the destruction of all state records and state buildings, the opening up and destruction of jails and prisons, juvies and reformatories.
The take over and collectivization of the means of communication – radio and television stations, printing presses and internet infrastructure for free access and flow of communication, information and more broad spread of the insurrection.
The self organization of specific peoples and struggles into their own collectives, assemblies, networks, federations, or what other forms they choose, no longer content to be smothered by an enforced universalism built on their backs and at their expense, to best discuss by themselves and for themselves the particularities of their oppression and exploitation and how to make the Social Revolution just as much their own.
To sum it all up – it is the total upsetting of normality and creating the conditions that make it impossible to return to the old world when the fires settle and the smoke clears. The steps we take are the clearing away of the physical structures of domination and with it seizing for ourselves the time and space to finally decide, on our own terms without any mediation or intermediary, who we are and how we wish to live.
In drawing out the potentials of this process I am not trying to devise a blueprint to be followed to the letter but am trying to bring light to the means to realize our goals and desires. This will all depend on the specifics of location and situation and needs a deep examination of the local and regional terrain and context to concretely figure out what to do.
Insurrectionary ruptures will come, as they always have, but they will not deliver us to somewhere else on their own. No act of divine providence, no cataclysmic event, no decree passed down from above will deliver us from the wretched position we find ourselves in – prostrated before our oppressors with the burden of their world on our backs.
It is only by the intentional, determined action of us as individuals and together with the rest of the great mass of the exploited individuals that we will pull the emergency brake on the death machine of capitalism and industrial civilization and make a break for it, never to return.
submitted anonymously
#anarchist #anarchy #insurrection #northAmerica #socialRevolution #uprising
-
“Our task as anarchists, our main preoccupation and greatest desire, is to see the social revolution come about: a terrible upheaval of men and institutions which finally succeeds in putting an end to exploitation and establishing the reign of justice.
For we anarchists the revolution is our guide, our constant point of reference, no matter what we are doing or what problem we are concerned with. The anarchy we want will not be possible without the painful revolutionary break. If we want to avoid turning this into no more than a dream we must struggle to destroy the State and the exploiters through revolution.”
-Alfredo Bonanno, Why Insurrection?Few anarchists today have any speak of social revolution. Many laugh off or roll their eyes at the mention of it or worse, talk about realism and reform. The few who talk talk about it as if it were a religious desire or an otherworldly force. But what is social revolution, and what is anarchy without the social revolution? A desire, a goal, an over arching project of our entire lives – without it, what are we, what are we doing, and why?
The anarchist movements in the U.S. today are largely a reactive force, always waiting for another movement or uprising to come along to attach ourselves to. Emptying anarchy of its content, anarchists are content to be the militant auxiliary or informal organizational vanguard of social movements or simply sit back and look for forms of anarchy in other peoples and places so we can rest assured that anarchy is a latent impulse in all peoples, that we are less alone than we really are and that it’s a simple matter of time before everything falls into place. If I were to sum it up, I would say that there is a great confusion about what it means to be an anarchist and what it is anarchists aspire to.
The last time I spoke to someone about the idea of revolution the person responded with how it has become such a meaningless word. I couldn’t agree more, but the conclusions we drew from this were totally different. For him it meant that we shouldn’t bother with the idea. For me it means that we must return to the basics of anarchy – reexamine, explore and draw out our ideals to their conclusions and the means to realize them lest they get captured and killed by the enemy like what has happened with once dangerous ideas like Direct Action, Mutual Aid, Anti-Authoritarianism and Free Association.
Our ideals and actions – what anarchism is and what it means to be, act, fight and live as an anarchist – are not static, unchanging things. They must be continually gone back to and re-examined or else we will unconsciously fall into paths and ideas defined and re-defined by those who aren’t anarchists. It’s no different than when we don’t examine our own lives and fall into unconscious patterns and suddenly wake up 5 years down the line somewhere we don’t recognize and someone we didn’t want to be. It’s the same because anarchy, too, must be lived and examined.
So this is my small contribution to the re-examination of anarchy with a particular focus on the concept of social revolution, a long neglected desire gathering dust in the old tomes and broken dreams of anarchists past. I hope to take it out, dust it off a little and rekindle its fire to help us orient ourselves in struggle. Anarchy isn’t merely a beautiful idea to be dreamt about yet never realized but it is a concrete condition of possibility – something that can be realized at any point in time but only if we set about the task of realizing it ourselves. But we will not stumble our way into anarchy, without an idea of the ways and means to get there we will find ourselves in a great confusion, running around in circles conflating ourselves with reform movements, labor movements, leftist movements, helping others realize their goals but finding ourselves no closer to our own. No, we need to know our goals and desires, we need to study and examine the means and processes to actualize them, we need to dig into the grand process of destruction and creation and get re-acquainted with it.
I do this as much for myself as for others because I am tired of half baked ideas leading to half baked action, of being led around by others’ whims or waiting around for someone or something else rather than concretely moving towards something. Because I am tired of stopping half way because I have no conception of what to do, or what could happen, next.
I can no longer be unsure, I have one life to live and it is what I wager each day I take up the fight for anarchy.
A Personal Reflection
For the longest time I was among those who didn’t think or care about revolution. It didn’t matter to me, all that mattered was the fight today. But you go and go and go and all the time you are going you’re not thinking, not reflecting. It wasn’t until I went to jail that I took time to slow down and think and reflect, because that’s all you could do in jail. Suddenly the immortality of youth was beginning to wear off – in the previous years, and years to come, friends and comrades have been intensely injured, some went to jail and prison, some were murdered by the weight of the world through suicide and overdose. The stakes were real and the consequences were real and I couldn’t afford to run around without thinking anymore.
At a certain point you have to ask – what am I in this for? Where are we going with this? What’s the point? What even is the anarchy I’m risking myself for? I think everyone gets there eventually. For most people there isn’t an answer and they drop off and try to “get their life together” and return to the bloody complicity of normality, or they try to keep going as they have until their life and/or body falls apart and they drop off, or they die.
The rest of us try to find something.
In jail I read a lot – Alfredo Bonanno, Assata Shakur, Ursula K. LeGuin, and the works, exploits and dreams of various other anonymous or otherwise lesser know anarchists, revolutionaries and rebels. When I got out I kept reading and kept thinking while trying to get my feet back on the ground. Then 2020 came, both the pandemic and the riots. It’s these two events that put things in perspective for me – opened my eyes to the possibilities and the horrors.
Me and some comrades went to Minneapolis – we saw the flames, the joy, the power but we also bore witness to the police, military and fascist repression on a scale we hadn’t experienced before. We returned to Olympia to experience for a few months a total power over the city. Everything was smashed and every night we would come out and smash more. We never thought we would get to this point and it was obvious we never thought beyond it because the same question came up over and over – now what?
Insurrection came and ripped space and time from the vicious maws of the state – its forces in retreat. But an opening is just an opening and we still have to make the conscious choice to walk through but we were unprepared – perhaps even scared – to ask important questions. Questions of land, of food, of expropriation, of arms (and particularly in ways that disempowered the professional ‘security’ teams – organized petty authoritarians – that bullied, injured and killed more of “us” than they ever did of cops and fascists – rest in power Antonio Mays Jr).
Downtown cores were wrecked, state security forces were in retreat, yet our everyday lives were untouched. We returned to our largely segregated neighborhoods which remained untouched, many of us still had to return to jobs or sleeping in cars or shelters or on the streets. The old forms of power – misogyny, white supremacy, citizenism, settler anxieties and the old baggage of many people’s class position still persisted and the struggle against these were pushed aside “for the movement” while numerous people on the receiving end of these forms of petty authoritarian domination were forced out. It was clear quickly that “the movement” had replaced the insurrection – the project of our very lives.
Without a vision, a goal, a total project and deep understanding of it we were unable to even imagine taking the opening which was forced open. We couldn’t grasp the totality of the project we were embarking on, only recognizing the streets as a terrain of struggle yet nowhere else.
And then the opening closed.
It’s in these past few years since and in the wake of the collapse of the anarchist movements here in which I’ve been doing the most thinking, studying and reflecting. Slowly in the last year we’ve really begun to re-emerge and yet still we are largely making the same, unconscious mistakes as before of waiting for another movement or uprising and attaching ourselves to it – of being reactive because we don’t think about where we are trying to go, of relegating Anarchism simply to a form of organizing social struggles and emptying it of its specific content.
It’s this desire to not repeat these mistakes of the past, to no longer aimlessly run around in circles or make complex excuses for waiting, to fully embrace Anarchy and delve into the self discovery of what that means that have brought me to the reexamination of the basics of anarchy and in particular the idea of social revolution – a total view of the project of destruction and transformation in all it’s facets, imperfections and particularities.
Social Revolution
The great process of destruction and creation. Some imagine this as a singular moment of battle after which we shall be free. Some see it like a force of nature that will come regardless of what we do – or specifically that we cannot do anything to make it come faster – to justify waiting forever. Others, also seeing it in a religious or natural manner, say it will never come so better to toss it aside, forget about it, and simply act.
It is neither mystical, nor a force of nature, nor something that happens outside of and to us but a concrete process which we undertake. It’s constantly beginning but it has no end because it is the project of our lives – how we live, how we understand ourselves, how we relate to others and the world around us.
In this way we talk of social revolution rather than Political Revolution like the Communists, Socialists, Democrats and Fascists do. The Political is concerned with the taking of power and exerting it over others, the administration of people and things, while the social is concerned with changing the very fabric of our lives – an undertaking no power can demand of us, force upon us, or undertake for us. It’s the very essence of autonomous self organization, we have to do it ourselves for ourselves.
It’s at the same time Individualistic and Collective and does away with the distinction all together. Individualistic because the changing of relations starts at the level of the individual – from the moment we decide to be done with our old selves, be done with submission, with the humiliations thrust upon us by this world. When we begin to see and understand oppression, our suffering and our complicity in the suffering of others, and undergo a process of internal transformation. Collective because once we begin we can no longer turn back, forget, return to our old selves and very quickly we come upon the violent limits of this world – the landlord, the boss, the police and every petty authoritarian along the way. We begin to understand that our lives, our freedom, is bound in the lives and freedom of the Other, that we are not an island, that we rely on other people. We also realize that we are weak. By ourselves we are at the mercy of the dominators, we can strike out in small ways and at first it is freeing but quickly we come face to face with the enormity of the world of horrors. It’s at this point we reach out for the Others and for the first time stumble awkwardly through how to be together on our own terms – to add up our Individual power to make a Collective power that doesn’t diminish but empowers. All this to live better and fuller. All this to attack and for the first time claim our lives and our futures.
It is a dance between Destruction and Creation. We Destroy our old selves and the baggage of this world – the inhibitions, the roles thrust onto us, the small ways we keep crawling back to the Masters. Knowing the bourgeoisie, the nationalists, the colonists, the authoritarians won’t simply give up their power – that is what police, armies and militias are for, after all – we lay waste to the old world to clear the time and space for ourselves. It is only with this Destruction that we can talk of Creation – we destroy our old selves to open the possibilities to – for the first time – a free and full existence that is determined on our terms. We destroy the old world and its wretched defenders to claw out the space and time to experiment with all the ways we can exist together. One does not exist without the other.
This is the essence of social revolution, it is conscious steps we take day by day inside ourselves and with each other that is both wildly destructive and beautifully creative. If all we do is think about it, it will be nothing as we are not doing it. If we sit, examine and debate its nature it will be nothing because we are not doing it. It is not a matter of belief, it doesn’t matter if you don’t believe in it or care about it because it is something we do, do for our entire lives and it is only by doing does it come to be.
This is all well and good, but it’s still too vague for my taste, so let’s go a little further.
Here is my greatest desire: Anarchy, the autonomy of the individual in the freedom of association assured by the full, free, and equitable access to the means of life, joy and self fulfillment. The understanding that all that exists and will exist is so by the collective effort of all living creatures since the beginning of life and as such it is the rightful collective inheritance of all living creatures, belonging to us all, simply by virtue of birth. It is the negation of authority and hierarchy, the universal emancipation of all living creature from all forms of domination – to neither rule nor be ruled.
It is this view of anarchy which shapes my understanding of social revolution and the process in which we bring it to be. For me, there is no difference between our ends and means, our means must also be our ends – this is why we oppose political parties, vanguardism, a military discipline, bureaucracy and alienating structures that subdue the individual. Not just on tactical grounds, but for the fact that to try to attain anti-authoritarian ends through authoritarian means is an inherent negation of anarchy. It is to explicitly say that means and principles of anarchy are not up to the task of its realization.
The means in which we realize revolution will give anarchist principles their precise historical content – individual autonomy, direct action, the refusal of mediation and compromise, freedom of association, solidarity and mutual aid, etc. Directly putting these into practice in the insurrectionary moment will be chaotic, many will accuse the process and the new individuals it creates of going too far – first and foremost among the terrified pearl clutchers will be those who know that a person who has the means to directly satisfy their needs cannot so easily be managed, mediated, controlled and passed through the gamut of half way measures and incrementalism.
Realism, slow steps, transitory stages will not curb the desires of the barbarous individual born of the insurrection. The revolutionary process is aborted by half measures and it is from the corpse of this process that the monster of the reaction is born and tightens around our necks its claws of Law and Order – a reality we are currently living in the aftermath of the 2020 insurrection.
The first and most important part of the revolutionary process is the abolition of private property – in all of its forms from land and capital to food, clothing, shelter, etc. – by a total and complete expropriation expressed in the opening up and looting of all stores and warehouses, taking stock of all empty houses and apartments and letting those who need them house themselves, the refusal of paying or recognizing rents and debts, the take over and self-organization, mass abandonment, or destruction of all workplaces and opening up their use to all.
This is the actualization of the phrase “Everything for everyone” and its negation is the establishment of a revolutionary dollar, a barter system, labor vouchers. The very first revolutionary act is the destruction of Capitalism, exchange economics and the wage system by the immediate self organization by the exploited to assure – through arms – that everyone has the means of access to food, clothing, dignified housing without any intermediary or committee.
This is the first expression of self organization and the revolutionary process lives or dies by it.
What comes next is an uncontrollable extension of fire, self organization and collectivization reaching into every corner of the old world.
The destruction of all records and torching of all financial and property based institutions – banks, treasuries, debt collectors, real estate, property management, etc.
The re-appropriation of the pool of collective knowledge and skill and the self organization of social life to abolish the division of labor which brings an end to the reign of specialists.
The looting of gun stores and armories for the free arming of all peoples and self organization of revolutionary violence – rejecting uniforms, ranks, professionalization, militarization and the armed vanguard – for the routing of state security forces and opening the way to the destruction of all state records and state buildings, the opening up and destruction of jails and prisons, juvies and reformatories.
The take over and collectivization of the means of communication – radio and television stations, printing presses and internet infrastructure for free access and flow of communication, information and more broad spread of the insurrection.
The self organization of specific peoples and struggles into their own collectives, assemblies, networks, federations, or what other forms they choose, no longer content to be smothered by an enforced universalism built on their backs and at their expense, to best discuss by themselves and for themselves the particularities of their oppression and exploitation and how to make the Social Revolution just as much their own.
To sum it all up – it is the total upsetting of normality and creating the conditions that make it impossible to return to the old world when the fires settle and the smoke clears. The steps we take are the clearing away of the physical structures of domination and with it seizing for ourselves the time and space to finally decide, on our own terms without any mediation or intermediary, who we are and how we wish to live.
In drawing out the potentials of this process I am not trying to devise a blueprint to be followed to the letter but am trying to bring light to the means to realize our goals and desires. This will all depend on the specifics of location and situation and needs a deep examination of the local and regional terrain and context to concretely figure out what to do.
Insurrectionary ruptures will come, as they always have, but they will not deliver us to somewhere else on their own. No act of divine providence, no cataclysmic event, no decree passed down from above will deliver us from the wretched position we find ourselves in – prostrated before our oppressors with the burden of their world on our backs.
It is only by the intentional, determined action of us as individuals and together with the rest of the great mass of the exploited individuals that we will pull the emergency brake on the death machine of capitalism and industrial civilization and make a break for it, never to return.
submitted anonymously
#anarchist #anarchy #insurrection #northAmerica #socialRevolution #uprising
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Another great video from #Andrewism that I advise to watch. But please take your time, make notes and don't take it as a blueprint, but as inspiration (like all of anarchism) to start or continue the social revolution.
*How Anarchy Works*
🎞️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrTzjaXskUU
"Anarchism is the political philosophy and practice that opposes all hierarchies along with their “justifying” dogmas and proposes the unending pursuit of anarchy, where free association, self-determination, and mutual aid form the basis of our society. But what does that mean? Let's explore how we might organise anarchy."
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Another great video from #Andrewism that I advise to watch. But please take your time, make notes and don't take it as a blueprint, but as inspiration (like all of anarchism) to start or continue the social revolution.
*How Anarchy Works*
🎞️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrTzjaXskUU
"Anarchism is the political philosophy and practice that opposes all hierarchies along with their “justifying” dogmas and proposes the unending pursuit of anarchy, where free association, self-determination, and mutual aid form the basis of our society. But what does that mean? Let's explore how we might organise anarchy."
-
Another great video from #Andrewism that I advise to watch. But please take your time, make notes and don't take it as a blueprint, but as inspiration (like all of anarchism) to start or continue the social revolution.
*How Anarchy Works*
🎞️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrTzjaXskUU
"Anarchism is the political philosophy and practice that opposes all hierarchies along with their “justifying” dogmas and proposes the unending pursuit of anarchy, where free association, self-determination, and mutual aid form the basis of our society. But what does that mean? Let's explore how we might organise anarchy."
-
Another great video from #Andrewism that I advise to watch. But please take your time, make notes and don't take it as a blueprint, but as inspiration (like all of anarchism) to start or continue the social revolution.
*How Anarchy Works*
🎞️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrTzjaXskUU
"Anarchism is the political philosophy and practice that opposes all hierarchies along with their “justifying” dogmas and proposes the unending pursuit of anarchy, where free association, self-determination, and mutual aid form the basis of our society. But what does that mean? Let's explore how we might organise anarchy."
-
Another great video from #Andrewism that I advise to watch. But please take your time, make notes and don't take it as a blueprint, but as inspiration (like all of anarchism) to start or continue the social revolution.
*How Anarchy Works*
🎞️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrTzjaXskUU
"Anarchism is the political philosophy and practice that opposes all hierarchies along with their “justifying” dogmas and proposes the unending pursuit of anarchy, where free association, self-determination, and mutual aid form the basis of our society. But what does that mean? Let's explore how we might organise anarchy."