Everywhere in the news and in conversations these past few weeks have been discussions about immigration and the policies of the USA government, especially that of separating migrant parents from their children. For anarchists, there is a justifiable need to abolish the borders between nations, societies, cultures and whatever else separates and defines us.
A Response to a Proposal for Desertion
This is a jotted-down reflection of some thoughts triggered by the reading of An Invitation to Desertion by Bellamy Fitzpatrick; the first article in the first issue of Backwoods (A journal of anarchy and wortcunning, Spring 2018). In order to develop my own objections and rejections of the theory (named as such by the author), I will break it down in circumscribed parts. This partly corresponds with the sequence from the original text, partly it is my own imposition on it since the author wanders off from time to time. Deconstructing the theory to digestible bits, is something I do at my own risk (of missing the point, and consequently being off mark with my critique) and it is neglecting the text as a creative work (since all the literary qualities are thus dispensed of). But it is also a necessity to make way for my own trail of thoughts to develop.
From The Local Kids
The year is 2018. Our living environment is increasingly interconnected and transparent. This is obvious for the digital reality but is also true for the physical – if the distinction between the two hasn’t already become too artificial. These tendencies have reinforced the validation of the self through affiliation to a group and subjugation to its norms. Before our eyes identities are being constructed, clashes erupt in the scramble for a space to carve out and claim. A bonus for its members is that the enforcing of the norms now is horizontally distributed. As society becomes more totalitarian, the main feeling becomes anxiety. Will for one more day our imperfections pass unnoticed, or maybe just tolerated? And while we invest everything in this socially acceptable image of ourselves we have created, we become the role we were only playing. Is this life?
Episode 10: 7-3-2018
'Of Gods and Country' update. MD newspaper shooter and facial recognition software. Colonizers and headhunters in 'Severed.' Identity politics, social media, and seeing faces on a new virtual landscape and the rise of a new ethno-nationalism. Dear Antifa.
To close, let us summarize the argument. Is the State necessary for the struggle against climate change? No; instead, we see that the State is, alongside capitalism, our principal enemy in contributing to global warming and other environmental catastrophes. Due to its functional role in defending and expanding the capitalist system, the State cannot be a means for true climate justice. Let us not concern ourselves with reformist false solutions to environmental problems, but rather get on with organizing a broad-based popular global movement that implements the solutions we need.
Ever since Trump became President of the USA there’s been the prospect of him visiting the UK and the chance for direct action. Anarchist organising is not what it was in London just a few short years ago. I seriously doubt the capacity for bursting the official bubble and suspect that the main leftist counter demo will be the only alternative narrative on offer.
From The Anvil Review - by Alex Gorrion
Now that the controversy and indignation over Kanye West's early May comment has been forgotten and replaced by a dozen other moral outrages, each evidently so important for fine-tuning the ethics of a society that doesn't actually change, I want to return to his assertion that four hundred years of slavery was “a choice”. I would argue—not out of any desire to play a role in a spectacle of controversy, one that has long since expired, but out of genuine conviction—that Kanye was right about one thing, and wrong about another.
As of May 1st, 2018 to today (July 4th, 2018), the anarchist prisoners in Yogyakarta have still not faced court proceedings. Information received is that the anarchist prisoners should have been transferred to Cebongan Prison in Sleman on June 29th, 2018, as the prosecutor's office has been holding them in Yogyakarta police station (Polda Yogyakarta) since May 1st for the investigation process. However, the planned transfer was cancelled and the period of detention at Polda Yogyakarta has been extended until July 30th, 2018 on the grounds of further investigation. Our prediction is the extended investigation process is due to this case being politicized, it's evident by the many opinions that appear on the surface that the May 1st action was an act of opposition against the government.
On July 2nd, a coalition of groups in Philadelphia occupied the local ICE office. In what follows I offer a few quick sketches of the occupation. I was there at the opening of the march at City Hall at 5PM until I had to leave at 9, and then again the next day (July 3rd) at 9:30, leaving just after noon. Today, July 4th, the occupation enters its third day. The account and ideas below are therefore cobbled together from my own experiences, from Unicorn Riot’s live feed, and from reports from comrades who were there when I couldn’t be.
From Pramen
Several people were charged with illegal usage of forest resources and distribution of extremist materials after GUBOPiK (Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption, – a branch of Ministry of Internal Affairs, which executes the functions of political police in Belarus) supported by special task forces attacked an informal anarchist meeting. According to the ABC-Belarus reports, there were around 20 participants at the camping site. Below you can read the first-person evidence of one of the participants of the camp.
