A <em>blog entry</em> is a single post to an online journal, or <em>blog</em>.
Today the word "communism" is most often associated with the totalitarian one-party states of Soviet Russia or China. Nothing could be further from the anarchist goal of a stateless, free society. So the association of anarchism with communism seems, at first sight, perverse.
I arrived back last week from a weeks holiday in Berlin during which I did a meeting on ‘Organised Anarchism in Ireland’ and an interview with Shane of (Berlin) Anarchist Media Group, you’ll find the audio at the end of this blog post. I also spent a good bit of time walking around the city, which I last visited, shortly after the wall had come down, in 1990. The geography of Berlin reflects its difficult history; I’m mostly talking about that aspect in this blog post.
AFAQ is now at release 13.2. So What’s New at the FAQ?
Mostly, it is the revision of two sub-sections of section I. This is the second of three revisions, although this release was changed to be just with sections I.4 and I.5. Section I.6 will be done at the same time as I.7 and I.8. This revision was done on schedule and the next seems to be going well and as planned.
Ok heres a few posters stickers ive been working on lately, or over the past while
The world changed in 1921, as much in Detroit as Kronstadt. In that year the doctrine of the genius of the designer had to cede to the desire of the consumer.
“At long last [AFAQ] . . . has moved from the Internet onto the printed page . . . The prefix to the book is ‘An’ Anarchist FAQ. The collective is too modest. This is the place to go to find out about anarchist ides, theory and practice. It is accessible and based on sound research. Thoroughly recommended.” (Richard Griffin, Freedom, Vol. 70, No. 14)
Black Flag is a UK based class struggle anarchist magazine which (currently) comes out twice a year. We are not affiliated with any of the British anarchist federations, although we aim to have friendly relationships with all and hope to increase co-operation in the future. We also work with the comrades at Freedom and the Anarchist Federation has agreed to work with us (and has contributed an article for the current issue, no 229).
As I blogged before, I’m working on a Proudhon Reader. This is due for publication by AK Press next year (2010) and aims to mark the 170th anniversary of Proudhon’s “What is Property?” and so the 170th anniversary of anarchism as a named socio-economic theory and movement. This is an update on how this is progressing.
The Green Party has been the junior partner in governement here in Ireland for the last couple of years. Previously they had supported the struggle against the Shell project in Erris but once in power one of their ministers, Eamonn Ryan, has been in charge of imposing it! At the weekend they had a special conference in Dublin to decide how they were voting on Lisbon 2 and Dublin Shell to Sea turned up to picket it and highlight the great oil and gas giveaway.
While I have great respect for Marx’s contribution to the socialist movement (specifically, but not limited to, his analysis of capitalism), I really get sick of attempts to over-egg his influence and, at the same time, reduce the the influence of anarchism or implicitly deny core aspects of revolutionary anarchism. To say that, for example, the Haymarket anarchists "synthesised" anarchism and Marxism seems to suggest that if you accept class struggle, collective action and unions then you are not really an anarchist. Which is, to say the least, bollocks. It suggests an utter ignorance of anarchist ideas and movements. [Serbo-Croat translation]