Call for Submissions: Growing Into Anarchy

In her essay “I Was a Teenage Anarchist and Now I’m a Mid-Thirties Anarchist,” Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness co-editor Margaret Killjoy writes:

“I’m not an anarchist for the sake of old-me. I’m not an anarchist simply out of habit, but out of deep and ever-deepening conviction. While on the surface, there are things about me that have calmed down, anti-authoritarianism and a pro-collective spirit have sunk deeper into me over the years. The difference between teenage anarchist me and adult anarchist me is the difference between the goth garb I wore in high school and the one I wear now: as a teenager, I was trying on a persona and a costume. As an adult, it’s that I’ve found the clothes and ideas that suit me.”

A lot of us are grappling with what it means to get older as an anarchist. We struggle with physical and mental health issues, adapting to new lifestyles, figuring out how to reckon our realities with the ideals of our younger selves. Out of a desire to make space for these stories, Strangers is putting together a zine anthology of essays (750-2500 words) that explore aging as an anarchist. What challenges have you faced? How have they been impacted by other parts of your identity or by privileges or experiences of oppression? How have you grown as an anarchist over the years? Which political strategies have you adopted, and which have you left behind? We’re looking for writing that’s political, that’s personal, that’s willing to be honest and, at times, unsure.

Please email submissions to seamsandstory@gmail.com with “Strangers Anthology” in the subject line by October 15, 2017. Include a cover letter and paste your submission directly into the body of the email or attach it as a Word document. There’s no minimum submitter age — feel free to send us work if the project resonates with you. Writers whose work is accepted for publication will receive $25 and two hard copies.

While all who self-identify as anarchists are welcome to submit, we’re particularly interested in publishing work by writers of color and by writers who are trans, queer, working class, people with disabilities, undocumented or from immigrant communities, Muslim, women, and others who are too often marginalized in anarchism and publishing.

Hurrah for Anarchy: Mayday as Celebrated by the Anarchists

Mayday, to the anarchists, is a holiday of remembrance. Perhaps you’ve heard the communists and liberals say that it’s a celebration of the eight-hour workday. I suppose it’s that too. But for me, it’s a holiday to remember when the State put anarchism itself on trial. In 1886, the line was drawn and the US radicals lost their innocence; the illusion of “free speech” and free association was shattered. Let that illusion never re-form.

Mayday is our holiday. Mayday is a celebration of anarchism, of our history of defiance. It has a lot to do with labor, but Mayday has nothing to do with electoral politics, with the American flag. “Labor day” was invented and implemented to distract people from the radical history of labor.

Mayday is also, of course, the celebration of Beltane — a religious and spiritual holiday that celebrates springtime. And for the past decade at least, it’s the day of protest and action in response to the US treatment of immigrants. It’s a big enough holiday to share, and anarchists are present in those movements as well.

Myself, on Mayday, I remember five people who were killed for being anarchists.
Continue reading Hurrah for Anarchy: Mayday as Celebrated by the Anarchists

call for submissions – A World Without A Nation: anarchist and other non-state visions of society.

As we play a leading role in the militant resistance to the rise of fascism, the world’s eyes are on anarchists like they haven’t been in decades. We ought to make the best of that.

By attacking what we despise, we’ve made it clear what we’re against — authoritarianism in all its guises. But we all know that the black bloc and demonstrations are just the tip of the anarchist iceberg. It’s probably time to show the world what else is in that iceberg.

We’re looking for short explorations (500-3000 words) of anarchist and other non-state visions of the future. We believe in a world in which many worlds are possible, so… what do those worlds look like? What do you believe an anarchist-communist society might look like? An anarchist-primitivist society? A green-syndicalist society? A mutualist society? A post-scarcity solarpunk anarchist society? A decolonized society? An anti-state Marxist society? A Christian anarchist society? A Muslim anarchist society? Some other sort of society we haven’t listed here? The only limits are: the society described must be possible without a quantum leap in technology (no Star Trek replicators or uploading our consciousness) and without the die-off of the world’s population; the society must be non-state, non-capitalist, and strive towards the eradication of coercive hierarchy.

The piece can be written as an essay (preferred) or potentially as fiction. It should be written in a non-academic tone and not require the reader to already be familiar with specialized philosophical or political concepts. As with all our publications, we will prioritize contributors with underrepresented voices, including writers of color, and writers who are trans, queer people, working class writers, people with disabilities, undocumented writers or those from immigrant communities, and women writers.

We have editors willing to work with you to articulate your visions. If you have a fairly unique point of view but don’t feel comfortable writing a piece on your own or simply don’t have time, we are willing to work with you to ghostwrite your piece to your specifications.

The deadline for contributions is March 15, but we highly encourage people to send pitches for consideration before writing full pieces.

There is no pay (nor do we pay ourselves). The accepted works will be posted on tangledwilderness.org and collected into print (presumably as a zine, but potentially as a book).

Pitches or submissions can be made to editor Margaret Killjoy at magpie@birdsbeforethestorm.net

La Vida Sin La Ley

Una Introduccion al Anarquismo


PDF virtual
PDF para la impresora

Este documento radical ha sido traducido con orgullo por Camarada P.M.A Vazquez, también conocido por su seudónimo “Columbus Bull”

“Quiero la libertad, el derecho a la auto-expresión, el derecho de todo el mundo a las cosas hermosas, radiante.”
—Emma Goldman, 1931

Un anarquista es alguien que rechaza la dominación de una persona o clase de personas sobre otra. El anarquismo es un término general muy amplio para un grupo de filosofías políticas que se basan en la idea de que podemos vivir como anarquistas. Nosotros los anarquistas queremos un mundo sin naciones, gobiernos, capitalismo, racismo, sexismo, homofobia … sin ninguno de los numerosos y interconnectados sistemas de dominación que el mundo soporta el peso en estos dias.

No hay una única expresión perfecta del anarquismo, porque el anarquismo es una telaraña de ideas en lugar de una sola filosofía dogmática. Y lo preferimos de esa manera.
Continue reading La Vida Sin La Ley

Our Work Has Begun; the Future is Coming

Text as a zine:
imposed PDF

We’ve had almost two months for it to sink in: Donald Trump is the president-elect of the most powerful military power on Earth. As anarchists, we know the cliche that whomever we vote for, the government always wins. But still, for most of us, this election has felt different. Wren Awry has collected this short anthology of anarchist responses to the election that we hope will help us consider what to do in the near future. Some of it is strategic musing, some of it is emotional. Some of it has been published by us or elsewhere already, some of it appears herein for the first time. Feel free to print out a copy of the included PDF.
Continue reading Our Work Has Begun; the Future is Coming

Trump’s First Hundred Days and the Fascist Agenda

by Alexander Reid Ross

First, the future

Fascists in the US today can agree on little more than the desire for a white ethnostate. Despite conjecture on Trump’s deep interests and desires, few indicators suggest that he would effect such a drastic transformation as that. However, it is the question of process that matters most.

There is truth to journalist Arun Gupta’s insistence that Trump’s program would lead to ethnic cleansing, which is why fascists have taken such a shine to him and why the ACLU has declared that they will “see him in court.” Trump has announced his plan to immediately deport as many as three million migrants from the US, and alt-right founder Richard Spencer, who has already associated Trump’s platform with “peaceful ethnic cleansing,” has called Trump’s presidency a “first step” toward a white ethnostate.
Continue reading Trump’s First Hundred Days and the Fascist Agenda

Instead of a safety pin

we’re pleased to offer these 1″ (and now 2.25″) buttons to help you make clear your intention to, you know, fuck up bigots.

UPDATED January 2, 2017: We’ve now added 2.25″ versions of these templates for people with access to 2.25″ buttonmakers.
Templates: 2.25″ Fuck Up Bigots pin and 2.25″ Stop Bigots pin.
For sale on etsy: 2.25″ Fuck Up Bigots pin and 2.25″ Stop Bigots pin.

UPDATED November 16: Unfortunately, demand has far exceeded Birds Before the Storm’s capacity to print buttons at cost. They are still available for full price ($1.50 per button) although with a fairly long manufacturing time while they catch up on all the tens of thousands they are producing and mailing out at basically-cost. Once they’re caught up they will probably make them available for bulk again. You can purchase the NSFW version (pictured above) or the Safe For Work version.

UPDATED November 18: Our new friends at Pins & Needles PDX have taken the burden. Buttons are available for $1 each or 10 for $2 total.

If you have access to a 1″ button maker, you can use the PDF template of the NSFW version and the Safe For Work version we’ve provided. In addition, there is now a 2.25″ template available of the NSFW version and the Safe For Work version from our new friends at Headfirst! Records.

Anarchist, collectively-run publisher AK Press is selling T-Shirts for $15 of the NSFW version and the Safe for Work version. This is cheaper than their usual shirts and AK Press has a long history of direct involvement and support for with anti-oppression work, so we trust them to do this.

For us this message isn’t about allyship. It’s about solidarity between marginalized peoples who are facing increased harassment in the wake of Trump’s election.

Quarter-Sheet Flyer for Anti-Trump Rallies

Text as a flyer:
PDF

This text is formatted as a quarter-sheet flyer to be passed out to participants and bystanders at post-election anti-Trump rallies. Simply print the pdf and cut it in four.

We Won’t Be Governed by Hate

Trump’s campaign was one of pure, might-makes-right nationalism. He has proposed a registry of Muslims. He brags about sexually assaulting women. It’s written into his official platform that he will force Mexico to pay for American infrastructure. He tweets Mussolini quotes. He intends to withdraw from international agreements against climate change. He believes in an America that is “strong” at the expense of its most marginalized people and at the expense of the rest of the world.

Even more dangerous than his ability to influence political policy is his ability to inspire white nationalists towards organized violence. His election emboldened racists and homophobes. We are here to counter that.

This is not about supporting Hillary Clinton. This is not about electoral politics at all. This isn’t about getting out the vote for 2020. It’s about what we can do, here and now, to prevent Trump’s toxic nationalism from further infecting the country.

Instead of giving up, we can fight. The electoral system has failed us again. Let’s not fail ourselves. Let’s not fail each other.

Every step trump’s government takes, we can be there to counter it.

Call For Submissions: Anarchist Responses to Trump’s Election

Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness is looking for anarchist responses to Trump’s election. Send us nonfiction, fiction, poetry, art, and comics that touch on your reactions to or takes on Trump’s election. The submissions will be published in an upcoming anthology zine.

While all are welcome to submit, we are particularly interested in publishing work by writers of color, and writers who are trans, queer people, working class, people with disabilities, undocumented or from immigrant communities, Muslim, women, or otherwise marginalized in the terrifying reality that is Trumpian America.

Please send all submissions to seamsandstory@gmail.com by Dec. 5, 2016.

The Days After the Election and the Days Before the Revolution

by Anarchist Resistance NYC

Today, many radicals are asking themselves how they could be waking up to President Trump. Our question instead is what does this mean for the Left in this country. Paralyzing myths have now been shattered, and this situation could, with a lot of work, passion, and clear thinking, lead to a strategy of action and a far greater positive change than voting for the status quo. The change we are talking about is generational and will have a far greater effect than any string of elections, no matter how repugnant they may be.
Continue reading The Days After the Election and the Days Before the Revolution