Welcome to the official An Anarchist FAQ (AFAQ) blog!

This will be used to summarise new releases, make announcements, make supplemental additions to the FAQ, clarify points, reply to any relevant criticism and so on. It is doubtful that it will be updated that often, but it is useful to have.

The site has just been updated to Drupal 6.6 which gets all the security up to date. All existing modules were also updated and I've installed a number of new ones.

I spent yesterday morning and the early part of the afternnon removing 6 years accumulation of grease from the kitchen wallks. But in the late afternoon I escaped amd got to the Bloom conference in the Teachers Club.

Well, they went and done it! I hope that all the Americans reading this are taking deep breaths, for have seen their last day of FREEDOM! You are all now waking up to Islamo-Marxist regime change! The United Socialist States of America... you had been warned :)

The official launch of Volume 1 of An Anarchist FAQ in Glasgow has been confirmed.

It will take place at the december Radical Independent Bookfair (RiB) in Glasgow:

Saturday 6th Dec
12 - 8
STUC
Woodlands Road
Glasgow

The launch will be between 4-5.30pm. I must mention syndicalism, given the venue...

Which is fitting, as I started work on the thing in Glasgow over a decade ago. I'm looking forward to seeing lots of old faces and, hopefully, lots of new ones too!

The weekend of Nov 1st saw the Royal Irish Regiment stage a 'homecoming march' through Belfast. There were several republican counter protests and the Belfast WSM decided to call one of its own.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kNpNzDoH1II&eurl=http://bravenewfilms What he says is completely true. The US democratic system is a choice between two factions of the business party, and to say that it will not make any difference is also incorrect. So what he is saying is think long and hard before you decide to vote, not to vote or even vote green (which is as good as not voting if you ask me). The people - the real ordinary people - the working stiff - according to political scientists do 'slightly' better off under the democrats. So you have to take that into account.

My last letter to Weekly Worker asking about the exact differences between Leninism and Stalinism was ignored. Contributers were too busy bashing the eejit Stalinist who tried to defend that horrific regime.

However, there is a new article on Stalinism in this week's issue. That made me write another letter, which will hopefully provoke some response. It will be interesting to see if there are any actual differences raised which are not based on the subjective opinions of the leaders in power.

Since I returned from North America I've been doing a stint in the newly created role of WSM Internal Secretary. This weekend I get to step down from this role and pass it on to someone else. As the WSM has grown we've found it increasingly difficult to have good internal co-ordination but at the same time its been increasingly important that we do. Our first step a few years back was the activation of a monthly Delegate Council meeting where delegates from each branch would meet face to face for mandated decision making. Getting this working was difficult at first, in a part because it was a new process but also because at first we had too many limitations on the sort of decisions that could be made and a cumbersome ratification process.

Good news. I learned at the London anarchist bookfair that volume 1 of An Anarchist FAQ ships this week! This is straight from AK Press, so assuming that it does not meet any icebergs or ends up in Germany (long story), then I should be officially launching it in December in Glasgow!