theory

Anarchism is often portrayed as an isolated group of angsty teens smashing a Starbucks window. However, Anarchism historically has been a vibrant movement active in nearly every corner of the world. In this reading group we will discover the movement that is Anarchism, its history and culture, as a force for total liberation. This is a great opportunity to explore your curiosity about a widely misunderstood ideology and to learn its fundamental beliefs. For this reading group we'll be reading Black Flam e: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism by Michael Schmidt and Lucien Van Der Walt.

by Bill

The recent U.S. Social Forum in Detroit brought together some 10-15 thousand people, a lot of them young, to have conversations and participate in workshops and assemblies devoted to changing the existing rotten capitalist system. The USSF generated much enthusiasm, for the Forum was a huge opportunity for folks for the first time to meet others who were doing similar work in other places. These projects included issues like fighting foreclosures and evictions, school and hospital closings, police brutality and prisons, fetus fanatics, immigration xenophobia, and union givebacks; and building alternative institutions, environmental justice, transformative justice, participatory cultures, radical bicycling, &c. (Altogether there were well over 1000 workshops and assemblies over four days).

However, despite the excitement, the Forum fell far short of what’s necessary to address the current economic and political crisis of capitalism.

The subprime mortgage crisis that erupted in the United States has transformed into a global financial crisis. This crisis, which is being spun as a simple recession, is in fact one of the most serious crises since the 1929 Great Depression. As such, capitalism, on the brink of bankruptcy, has called on the State for help and is demanding that workers pay for the crisis by having their income reduced. As we can see by the rising numbers of unemployment and households struggling to survive, no one is left unharmed.

Numerous experts and economists have intervened to offer solutions that would, they hope, rehabilitate capitalism. They argue that the causes of this disaster are outside or foreign to capitalism. We do not agree. Let's be clear and identify what we believe are the true reasons behind this crisis that affects us all.

The Relationship Between Crisis and Consciousness
by Wayne Price

Considering the economic and social crisis we are facing, what are the relationships between the objective tendency of capitalism toward catastrophe and the subjective consciousness involved in class struggle? Is it "inevitable" that capitalism will crash and produce the socialist-anarchist revolution? Can we ignore or deny objective social laws in favor of focusing on the self-activity of the working class?

Some have described Participatory Economics (Parecon) an anarchist economy because of its principles of Self-Management and equity, which are intended to challenge hierarchy and other authoritarian apparatus. Northeastern Anarchist has hosted a debate among anarchists around Participatory Economics.