Now that An Anarchist FAQ (AFAQ) has been revised, all ready for volume 2 to be published next year, I’ve been working on getting the next update for Property is Theft! sorted out. This is focused around Proudhon, Marx and the Paris Commune. A theme of this update is that many so-called "Marxist" principles were first expounded by anarchists, notably Proudhon.
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A <em>blog entry</em> is a single post to an online journal, or <em>blog</em>.
This update of Property is Theft! is focused on two key issues, Proudhon and Marx as well as Proudhon’s influence on the Paris Commune (which explains why it has been updated on the 18th of March!). The two are inter-related, simply because many key “Marxist” positions are first found in Proudhon’s work or date from the 1871 revolt and, ironically, simply repeat the ideas raised by the Communards who in turn found them in Proudhon…
Back at the time of the November 24th strike and the budget I felt there was a need to make a brief argument that there was nothing inevitable about the way the cuts were being implemented. And to then move on to state how we could force the implementation of such a ‘program.’ This was one of a couple of pieces drafted for discussion by the Social Solidarity Network in order to adopt a simple piece of text we could then try and build from. Unfortunately as part of the general demoralisation due to the lack of resistance to the budget and the cancellation of the December 3rd strike the SSN process also fell apart. Having drafted the text which is now orphaned I thought I’d share that draft via this blog.
International Women’s Day was marked, as is becoming traditional in Dublin, with a Feminist walking tour around the city center. I recorded the seven stops and along with three stops from the previous year have now added them to my Google Map of ‘Radical Ireland’ as well as adding the text of the tour booklet to the Choice Ireland site. About 150 people (mostly women) took part in the tour which was divid
The final Better Questions seminar was last week, this was a ‘Roundtable on Praxis’ with Fergal (who is another WSM member) and Theresa O’Keefe a feminist academic and activist. Fergal who is a community educator and activist gave a short introduction to the ideas of Paulo Freire entitled ‘Hope, cultural politics and popular education’.
An Anarchist FAQ version 14.0
AFAQ is now at release 14.0 So What’s New at the FAQ?
This revision was made as part of getting the second volume of the FAQ ready for publication. That is now complete. Volume 2, which includes sections G to J, is now complete and ready for AK Press to proof-read and get the layout done. This is, as would be imagined, a great relief! Given that AFAQ was formally released on the 19th of July 1995, this means that this is the climax of over 15 years work.
I recently attended the showing of ‘Meeting Room,’ a new documentary about the Concerned Parents Against Drugs movement of the 1980’s in Dublin. It tells the story of how the tenants of a couple of Dublin flat complexes mobilized to drive heroin dealers out of their estates and how the state then suppressed that movement as it began to spread to other areas of the city. The screening was part of the Jameson Dublin Film Festival and several of those who had participated in the documentary were there to watch film and contribute to the discussion with the film makers afterwards.
Well, still not blogging as much as I planned… Once a week seems to be too much just now. Far too busy at work as well as getting An Anarchist FAQ revised for publication.
Žižek has a number of things going for him. Like Steve Jobs who can shower his magic dust on lumps of plastic, micro-processors, glass and sell them to millions, Slavoj Žižek appears to be able to perform similar miracles in the world of Big ideas. Secondly, he has all those Z’s in his name with funny floating pronunciation helpers floating like mobiles above them, and finally he is European that old place where all the ideas men come from.
I picked up a copy of his paperback ‘Violence’
I recently read Jonathan Fenby’s biography of Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek. I intended to write a review but got interrupted. Returning to what I had written I’ve decided to salvage it as a blog post on how Chiang Kai-Shek came to power through his alliance with the Chinese communist party and in particular the events of the Northern Expedition and the crushing of the workers movement in Shanghai in 1927. Fenby’s book is well worth reading, it aims to provide a post cold war account of the man who came to power on the back of the fragmentation of Chinese republicanism. This was in a manner similar to what happened in the period of retreat of republican revolutions elsewhere and at other times in history.