Hey all, I started my dive into anarchism a little over a year ago and I’ve read a lot of the anarchy/socialism 101 type books but I’m starting to find a lot of it repetitive. I’m looking for suggestions to deepen my understanding of anarchism and libertarian socialism. Especially praxis and tactics, a lot of theory that I’ve come across doesn’t really get into the weeds about applying it, and as someone in an area with no leftist orgs to speak of (outside of a small DSA chapter), I don’t have anyone local to go to in order to learn from.
I want to start putting all of this knowledge to use in my area but I’m not 100% sure where to start or how to avoid some of the pitfalls of organizing. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
Just to give a reference point for where I’m at in my understanding for suggestions, here’s a little bit of what I’ve read through. This isn’t all, but it’s a decent enough snapshot of where I’m at
Kropotkin: the bread book, mutual aid
Malatesta: anarchy, at the cafe
Rudolf rocker: anarcho syndicalism
FARJ: Social anarchism and organization
James c. Scott: seeing like a state (currently reading)
I’ll second Kropotkin’s The Bread Book (AKA “The Conquest of Bread”). I’ll admit it’s been a few years since I’ve directly read any political philosophy, but this one struck me as a bit more practical than the average anarchist text. By that I mean (if I’m remembering correctly) he does a better than average job of laying out how his proposed society could come about, as well as addressing what it might look like in practice. He’s specifically a proponent of anarchist communism, so it’s a different take than anarchist literature that focuses more on the individual.
Its a great read for sure! While it wasn’t huge on theory per se, it had a hopeful streak that I found very encouraging. It was one of the first strictly anarchist books I read and it showed a great contrast to the likes of Marx and Lenin, which I had been reading before. They seemed solely focused on criticizing without posing much in the way of meaningful alternatives to the status quo. I’m sure those suggestions exist on the auth left but a lot of their introductory texts are just “shits bad, yo”.
Just reading kropotkin go on for a few pages about dishwashers definitely put me in the mindset of “things can be better, they had the means then so we must have the means now” over the persistent sense of dread that saturated other socialist books.
Hahaha. Sorry, I didn’t realize I was replying to OP - I took that comment as being someone’s suggestions to you. In that case I’m afraid I don’t have much to offer. As I had said in my earlier comment my grasp on anarchist literature these days is a bit spotty (though I’m hoping to start freshening up on it, so I look forward to other replies.)
From what I recall, however, most anarchist writers seem to have an unfortunate tendency to lean more on theory than practice. Furthermore, a lot of the foundational stuff was written in the 19th century, so their practical suggestions are quite often not super applicable to the modern context.
All good! I have read some more modern texts from FARJ (an especifist org in Brazil), some stuff on zapatismo, and I have more modern texts on the back log. Stuff from Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin and a handful of queer anarchist theorists as well. There’s a boatload of modern theory floating around out there, it’s just time consuming to parse through. I also wanted to get “the classics” out of the way to have a good foundation and historical context to pull from when reading more modern work
Very cool! I’ll have to find some time to read up on some more modern stuff. I vaguely remember one really good modern book from when I went back to finish a poli sci degree 5ish years ago, but unfortunately don’t remember the name or author. If I manage to dig it up I’ll let you know, as I recall it being quite informative.
The first is what thinking on what kind of organization do you want to be a part of. Do you want to fight for labor rights in a union? Do you want an affinity group? Or maybe do you want to join a broad coalition of environmental defense. Or maybe a large anarchist platform.
Those are all different and will have different advantage and issues. There isn’t one right way of doing anarchism.
The other thing is, you mentioned there’s only a local DSA in there. Are you sure? Where is the chapter currently working? And more importantly, which movements are they working with? Knowing that might shed some light into other organizations or at least social movements.
I’m in a very conservative city in Florida, there aren’t a lot of left leaning political groups in the city, I’ve looked around as well as I can and attended a few protests over the last couple of years to find orgs. The DSA chapter is small and only really seems to show up for protests. They haven’t run any local candidates and only seem to do fundraisers for their party and planned parenthood. Not to knock their work, but it’s not what I had in mind. I’m not opposed to poking around and looking for fellow anarchists hanging around them. There was also a food not bombs group but they seem defunct. Their page is inactive and no one’s gotten back to me when I reached out. There was a vanguard/community defense group but they dissolved a few years back too. I’ve found a few Instagram pages but they’re not very active either. I’ve looked
As for what kind of org I want to be a part of, I’m not sure. I’ve read a bit about especifism, community organizing, book clubs, mutual aid networks, free stores, and anti fascist action and they all sound good in their own right. I’m not sure what all of the options are, in what circumstances they make sense, how to do them, etc. My education on this topic has been very sporadic and in bits and pieces. I want to learn a bit more in depth about all of these and whatever other tactics make sense. I am currently working on organizing my workplace but thats only recently started and I’m still testing the waters. My company has avoided unionization before and a lot of those people who voted against are still working here so it’s iffy.
I know there isn’t a “right way to do anarchism” per se. But I know the why, and very little of the how. I want to balance that out and start putting anarchism to work in my community
I recommend trying to reach put to large organizations that align with your interests in this case.
Especifismo: black rose anarchist federation
Radical unionism: Industrial Workers of the World
Both of those orgs will be able to help a lot more than we can, if you want to build something aligned to them. Building different organizations take different approaches, and they can share their experiences and strategies that are more likely to succeed.
I’m not from the US, so I don’t know many more organizations. But the principle stays the same: you want to build a mutual aid network, try talking with people already working on those, even if they aren’t from the same place.
Now, as to what exactly amongst each of those you should do, I think only you can answer. My approach is that the best thing is something that touches you (be either in your heart, your body or your wallet). So basically, what do you feel like doing?
I wish you the best of luck, comrade :)
Thanks for the links! I think I’m going to reach out to black rose. I appreciate the advice
