Which Side Podcast – Episode 193: We talk with Alice Carnes & John Zerzan; Anarchists, primitivist philosophers and authors. We discuss Anti-Civilization, Activism, Green Anarchism, Primitivism, Nihilism, Post-Modernism and Much More. #fsd
Listen here: whichsidepodcast.com/john-zerzan-alice-carnes
Anarchists and their friends often use the words community, solidarity, and affinity to express their relationships with one another. Our personal relationships with each other among anarchists and friends is one area of our lives where we have a great ability to create and share the most beautiful ideas together.
From Punk News
We have some terrible news to report. Erik Petersen of Mischief Brew passed away recently.
Camille Pissarro’s artwork is best known for the influence it had on Impressionism. He is lesser known for his anarchist beliefs, which permeated his artwork. Nevertheless, Pissarro’s artwork did not overtly call for a violent revolution as one might expect. His paintings featured bright colors, detailed figures, and pleasant settings. Without understanding Pissarro’s background and belief system, it is likely that one will not understand what he hoped to convey through his pieces.
From Overland - by Jeff Sparrow
Over the last few days, the streets have filled with Situationists, as Pokemon Go sends its legions of players out on prolonged dérives.
OK, the comparison’s slightly ridiculous. Yet consider Situationist pioneer Guy Debord’s description of the dérive, the psychogeographic technique his coterie was trialling in Paris in the fifties:
The past few weeks have had a few more headliners than usual when it comes to death by bullet. While police and soldiers are killing people consistently throughout the year, the other recent attacks happen less often. What is consistent for these other shootings is that despite differences in personal motivation, there really haven't been any organizations to claim them. They have been so-called lone wolves, taking action towards whatever targets they decide.
From Bedford + Bowery
It was difficult to ignore the fluttering signs at last week’s Bushwick Community Plan meeting. Sure, they were black-and-white, only about as big as two sheets of computer paper and just as flimsy, but there were tons of them. As City Council members Antonio Reynoso and Rafael Espinal touted their community-driven alternative to developer-led change, almost everyone sitting in front of them seemed to be holding a flyer reading: “EVICT THE RICH.” The rallying cry may have been more Mao Tse-tung than #BushwickBerners, but the Brooklyn Solidarity Network (BSN) couldn’t have been more serious.
Decades ago, I was part of organizing against Operation Rescue. At a couple of meetings some people showed up who seemed off. No one asked them to leave, although we all agreed afterwards that they were suspicious. When we called the contact info they'd left, it was wrong numbers all the way down. The first time this happened we all agreed that we would call them out if it happened again. It happened at least twice more, to similar silence from those of us who felt uncomfortable.
A new translation of a previously censored and unavailable text by Jean Genet. “The Criminal Child” is a critical engagement with the French youth prisons, a reflection on Genet’s formative years within them, a document of hostility towards society and its benevolent reformers, and (as argued by the anonymous afterword) an initiatory magical system.
“‘The Criminal Child’ has, until now, never appeared in its entirety in the English language. Such a remarkable oversight—remarkable because it concerns a writer as significant as Jean Genet—would be reason enough for us to render a translation and bring it to print. But, in reading it, reasons far beyond the bibliophilic impulse reveal them- selves and insist on the urgency, timeliness and import of this text.
Location plays a key role in dictating the nature of our ideas and opinions, who our enemies or friends may be, if we're separated from or near family and relatives, if we have a connection over generations to a land-base and its resources or are maybe just vaguely familiar to our surroundings, along with plenty of other variables.
