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Archives: Blog entry
A <em>blog entry</em> is a single post to an online journal, or <em>blog</em>.
At the time of writing the wave of outrage over the killing of 73 young football supporters in Port Said on 2 Feb 2012, a year to the day after the Battle of the Camels in Tahrir Square, is still raging around the Interior Ministry in Cairo. Legend has it, that in the early 1970s the then Foreign Minister of Maoist China, Zhou En Lai, was asked what he thought of the French Revolution and replied "it is too early to tell". Certainly the effects of the Egyptian Revolution are far too early to tell. As we enter Year II, the anniversary has been marked by monster demonstrations in Tahrir Square, followed by the provocation of yesterday’s massacre.
This year will see the publication of volume 2 of An Anarchist FAQ (AFAQ). The exact publication date is not known yet, however I think we can safely say that it will be out for this year’s London Bookfair in October. I hope, as before, to do the launch in my hometown of Glasgow. As a tester, and to show AFAQ is on-going, here is the final draft of the introduction of volume 2.
“[Property is Theft!] really is a welcome addition to the literature. Comprehensive, with a well-researched and substantial introduction… including not only the most important of Proudhon’s political writings, but many of his manifestos and letters… Proudhon outlined… the basic tenets of anarchism… Iain McKay and A.K. Press are therefore to be warmly congratulated on this very satisfying and much needed anthology” (Brian Morris, Freedom)
As long time readers of my work know, I’ve been somewhat critical of George Monbiot in the past (awarding him Muppet of The Week, twice). His account of anarchism in his book Age of Consent must be one of the worse ever, making his “critique” completely worthless.
Early in 2011 I gave a talk via Skype to the Toronto Anarchist Bookfair in which I described some of the aspects of the anti-colonial struggle in Ireland that I thought has some particular relevence to the colonial situations of the America’s in general and Canada in particular. The video was put on youtube in May and I had intended to find and tidy up the notes from the talk to publish here with the video but as 2011 is on its way out I’m going to post the video here as part of my end of year archiving / tidy up.
At the end of another year I’ve had a look back at all the articles I wrote in 2011 and how many reads each received here in Anarchist Writers and on the WSM site. Below are the five most popular according to those counts. In think all of these were also published in other locations so both the count and rank are only approximations.
Over the past month, Occupy Wall Street has chalked up a large number of bold actions against both government and private authorities; it has led an attempted general strike, raucous marches, occupations of banks and abandoned buildings, disruptions of political speeches and press events, and a massive West Coast shut down of major port terminals partly to aid longshore workers in their fights against their employers.
“And so it is Christmas, and what have you done?” So sang John Lennon on what is probably my favourite Xmas song – Happy Christmas (War is Over) (although the Pretenders’ 2000 Miles is also a favourite, but then I like the Pretenders – they do my all-time favourite song, Brass in Pocket). So what has the last few months been like? On a word, busy. Being a union rep takes up a lot of time…
Class war is a concept immediately familiar to most those on the far left and indeed is sufficiently well known as to receive the occasional reference in the mainstream media. As with all concepts we use to understand social forces, it colours how we think about our political activity and influences how we act day by day. Consequently is worth re-examining to tease out our understanding and see how such concepts can be usefully applied and extended.