From Black Rose Anarchist Federation

We members of the Black Rose/Rosa Negra Rojava-Syria Solidarity Committee (BRRN-RSSC) in the strongest terms condemn the Bashar al-Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian allies for their recent conquest of Eastern Aleppo.

From Anarkismo by Wayne Price

Review of Samuel Farber, The Politics of Che Guevara (2016)

The recent death of Fidel Castro makes it timely to review this account of how Che Guevara and Fidel Castro created the ideology and social structure of "Communist" Cuba.

“In 2011 and 2012, Syrians launched a popular revolution of enormous consequence and reach. New forms of organisation and expression emerged which reconfigured social relationships away from those based on hierarchy and domination towards the empowerment of individuals and communities. From 2013 on, however, these experiments were increasingly submerged by fierce counter-revolutionary trends, both Assadist and regional. War dismantled the country's infrastructure and social fabric. Over half the population fled its homes. What does this mean for revolution as a desired end?” (219)

Anti-authoritarians Leila Al-Shami and Robin Yassin-Kassab look back over the past fifteen years of resistance movements in Syria, to understand the anarchistic currents that emerged during the revolution that began in 2011. Altough this revolution has gone farther than any other in recent memory, it is poorly understand and has received little support. With Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War, the authors seek to change that.

By Zaher Baher
30/01/2016

Many articles from different people about Rojava have expressed different views. The vast majority of them have covered the positive and bright sides of this experiment. I too have written many articles, in both Kurdish and English. In addition, I have given many interviews to Kurdish and non-Kurdish media. I have attended and addressed several meetings, both in the UK and abroad. I travelled once to Rojava and twice to Bakur (the Kurdistan part of Turkey).

A massive movement, involving burning of police posts, etc, is erupting in Tunisia at this very moment with very little publicity, as far as I can see: at the moment I can only find this radical site that 's reporting it.

21/1/16

Tunisia: protesters try to storm government buildings in several towns on 3rd day of widespread rioting against unemployment

From The Brilliant

This episode we begin an examination about revolution where B ends up falling on the "working with small groups" and A! falls on "anarchist space is good" side of the conversation. We also talk about some listener feedback about the Midwest and some about how A! is some kind of a social scientist and shit. Especially the shit part.

Recorded on November 6th 2015

Join us in conversation by email

Let us begin with a couple of basic assumptions that are arguable but will allow us (if we accept them) to address the topic of the week in good faith.

Before we get to this let’s admit that we are trying to read one of our site's frenemies in the best possible light (which isn’t exactly fair to them as they are a stated opponent of anarchism as a political doctrine). The question, stated plainly, is “What exact activity should we be engaging in if we desire society-wide struggles that could lead to an anarchist society?”.

Is anarchism about affirming a world that you want to create; or, is it the complete negation of the existent?

Many anarchists assert that they are trying to create a new world in the shell of the old. They have a history of anarchist thought to support their claims. Like Bakunin, they advocate for a creative destruction. In the name of positive values such as mutual aid, freedom of association, consensus processes, egalitarianism, and usufruct notions of property, they claim that a revolution is necessary to realize such values.

Can you relate?

1) “Call-out culture was developed to allow activist groups to confront leaders who abused their privilege, but now it is being used to settle petty scores on the level of interpersonal politics. I now have a hard time believing some people when they make call-outs because I have seen too many that were based on nothing.

This is going to be the first in what I hope is a series of editorials that we host on relevant topics. We'll sticky the post for a 5 or 7 day period and see if we can have some civil and compelling conversations about topical (and site related) topics.

We'll start with a standard one.

What is the purpose of comments on anarchistnews.org and what is troubling about moderation of these comments.