The Pragmatic Anarchists.

A message from A Pritchard at Anarchist Studies Network:

      Ken Barlow, one of the commissioning editors at Pluto, has been in touch to ask if I knew of anyone that would be interested in writing a primer on anarchist praxis. I said I'd put out a general call if he could tell me what exactly he was after. This is what he said:

     "The image the general public have of anarchists (if they think of them at all) is often of 'all or nothing,' sometimes violent, diehards who are only willing to operate through complete non-compliance with the state. In reality, anarchist/non-hierarchical practice can be applied widely in day-to-day life to make the world a better place, even in contexts of having to engage with the state, and even by those who might not consider themselves 'anarchists'.  I am therefore envisaging a book (provisionally entitled 'The Pragmatic Anarchist') aimed at a wider (i.e. general, non-anarchist) readership that addresses this misnomer.

      Such a book would make the case for a 'practical' anarchism that acknowledges (which is obviously not the same as liking) the current primacy of the state, and in this context setting out how ordinary people can make use of anarchist ideas and principles 'pragmatically' in everyday life, whether in their social, work or political environments. The above is just a sketch of the book as I envisage it, and I would be open to alternative avenues drawing on the same theme."

           If you're up for it, I'm sure he'd like to hear from you (no need to email me). Ken Barlow <kenb@plutobooks.com>

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Workers Know Your History, Spanish Civil War.

 

         It is always important that our history is recorded for future reference and learning, and also made easily accessible to the public at large, so it is great news I have just received from Anarchist Studies Network, (ASN)

Dear comrades,

      The last newsletter of the International Institute of Social History that a significant part of the CNT-FAI Archive (1934-1939) will be digitised, thanks to a grant given by the Dutch organisation Metamorfoze. That means that the digitised part in due time will be open to everyone in the world interested in the CNT during the Civil War.

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Anarcha-feminism.

         Information from ASN on their 4th International Conference, so start writing your papers and booking your seats, I'm sure you have something to say on the matters mentioned.

** PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY **

Anarchist Studies Network :: 4th International Conference
Loughborough University, U.K. – 14-16 September 2016
Central theme: Anarcha-feminism
Call for Papers and Sessions

      The global resistance faces turbulent times, as the balance of hope teeters between inspiring mobilisation and reactionary retrenchment. In Rojava, Kurdish communities are implementing libertarian socialism and feminist leadership on a scale unseen since the Spanish civil war, while world powers bomb the democratic Syrian opposition alongside ISIS. The mobilisation of African Americans against police brutality goes beyond liberal platitudes to highlight systemic racism, while competitors for the Republican candidacy outdo one another in barefaced bigotry and misogyny. And while anarchists were encouraged by the resurgence of popular protest in the wake of the global financial crisis, much of that energy has been absorbed by electoral initiatives from Greece and Spain to the UK and US, vindicating longstanding concerns about the co-optation of movements who expect too much of the state. In these uncertain days, the elaboration of anarchist analysis which bridges theory and practice and speaks to the needs of social movements assumes increasing importance.
      The 4th International Conference of the Anarchist Studies Network will be held at Loughborough University between 14-16 September 2016. Proposals are welcome for individual papers, panels, and streams of several panels. We especially encourage panel proposals, to include 3-4 presentations drawn together around a common theme, although individual paper proposals are of course also welcome.
      Contributions from both within and outside the official academic sphere are invited from any scholarly discipline(s), on any topic relevant to the study of anarchism.
       The central theme for the conference is anarcha-feminism. The purposes are twofold: to stimulate discussion of a form of oppression that anarchists oppose but which continues to be felt in anarchist organising; and to welcome individuals, groups and communities who have not previously participated in ASN events. By recognising the legacy of anarcha-feminists/anarchist feminism and women's activism in anarchism we want to strengthen the ties between contemporary anarchists and feminists in the struggle against oppression and use the recognition of misogynist practices and hierarchical gender structures to open up the event to other marginalised peoples. We therefore particularly encourage submissions from women, trans and non-binary people, queer activists, collectives, people of colour, people with disabilities and we strongly encourage panel and panel stream organizers to overcome exclusion. We are also especially interested in presentations that are concerned with anarchism and one/more of the following:

*Anarcha-feminist and queer theory
*Anarcha-feminist critiques of the state
*Anarcha-feminist histories
*Ecofeminism, individualist anarcha-feminism, anarcho-primitivist feminism,     posthuman, cyborg and sci-fi anarcho-feminism
*Feminist critiques of anarchism and anarchist engagement with feminism
*Intersections between gender, sexuality, race, class, abilities and anarchism
*Local anarcho-feminist struggles / experiences
*Love, sex, relationships (or resistance to)
*Masculine and feminine representations and the movement between them
*Sex work and reproductive rights
*The role of women and non-binary people in the struggle against capitalism
      In addition, we welcome contributions on any other topic relevant to the study of anarchism, with or without connection to anarcha-feminism.
      ASN conferences aim to breach new frontiers in anarchist scholarship, and encourage cross-pollination between disciplines. As well as submissions that bridge the gap between ‘academic’ and other forms of knowledge, we also welcome proposals for workshops, art events/performances and experimental pieces and are happy to discuss ideas that you might have.
    Please send abstracts of up to 250 words per paper (multiply for panel/stream proposals) to ASN Co-convenor Uri Gordon at u.gordon@lboro.ac.uk by 14 March 2016

Anarchist Studies Network: http://anarchist-studies-network.org.uk/

Uri Gordon
Lecturer in Politics and Senior Tutor
Department of Politics, History & International Relations
Loughborough University
LE11 3TU
United Kingdom

 

Tel. +00 44 (0)1509 223656

http://lboro.academia.edu/UriGordon/

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Leila Berg.

      From Anarchist Studies Network,  for those who might be down London way, around the end of May:

Dear all,

       I've been asked to circulate information about an event to explore Leila Berg's contribution to radical education and the lives of children, on 22nd May in London (there's an obituary at http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/23/leila-berg). Berg identified as an anarchist in her later decades and championed anarchist educational approaches and experiments. The information is as follows:

Leila Berg (1917-2012): writer, rebel, radical educator.
Date: 22nd May 2013
Time: 7pm-8.30pm
Place: Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, London, N1 9DX
Entry is £3, redeemable against any purchase.

     An event to explore Leila Berg's contribution to radical education and the lives of children.
      Michael Fielding (professor at the Institute of Education, London) will chair a panel of speakers to introduce Berg's contribution to radical education and the lives of children: Emily Charkin (historian at the Institute of Education, London) on Berg's position within the radical education tradition of the 1960s and 70s, Wendy Jones (writer and friend of Berg) on Berg's writing for and with children and Lynn Brady (one of the founder members of the Risinghill Research group) on Berg's account of the radical school, Risinghill. There will then be time for questions and discussion about Berg's signficance for contemporary debates.

 

Ruth

Dept. Politics, History and International Relations,

Loughborough University,

LE11 3TU

 

Recent publications: Continuum Companion to Anarchism

Libertarian Socialism: Politics in Black and Red

 

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OPEN UTOPIA.

A message from Anarchist Studies Network: 

Open Utopia
Thomas More & Stephen Duncombe

       Open Utopia is the first complete English language edition of Thomas More’s Utopia that honors the primary precept of Utopia itself: that all property is common property. Open Utopia, licensed under Creative Commons, is free to copy, to share, to use. But Utopia is more than the story of a far-off land with no private property. It is a text that instructs us how to approach texts, be they literary or political, in an open manner: open to criticism, open to participation, and open to re-creation. Utopia is no-place, and therefore it is up to all of us to imagine it. 

      In this volume, and its accompanying website, Utopia is re-imagined and brought into the digital age as a participatory technology for undermining authority and facilitating new imagination.

Website: http://theopenutopia.org

      “A welcome new intervention into an old text. Re-read through the lens of Duncombe’s extensive – and persuasive – introduction, More’s Utopia is revealed as a subversive methodology for approaching utopias, one that engages and expands our capacity for political invention and imagination. Open Utopia is an infinite demand that splits the subject open to new possible worlds rather than giving a closed plan.” – Simon Critchley, author of The Faith of the Faithless

     “Everybody knows the difference between an open and a closed door. Fewer know the difference between an open mind and a closed mind, especially on the American left, where intellectual policing often replaces intellectual encouragement. Stephen Duncombe, in conversation with More and the horrifying history of utopia and utopians, opens minds and doors and reaffirms the importance of utopian thinking. Adelante, excelsior!” – Reverend Donna Schaper
PDF available freely online (http://www.minorcompositions.info/?p=487).

Open Utopia
Thomas More & Stephen Duncombe

    Opinion polls, volatile voting patterns, and street protests demonstrate widespread dissatisfaction with the current system, yet the popular response so far has largely been limited to the angry outcry of No! But negation, by itself, affects nothing. The dominant system doesn’t dominate because people agree with it; it rules because we’re convinced there is no alternative.

        We need to be able to imagine a radical alternative – a Utopia – yet we are haunted by the disasters of “actually existing” Utopias of the past century, from fascism to authoritarian socialism. In this re-issue of Thomas More’s generative volume, scholar and activist Stephen Duncombe re-imagines Utopia as an open text, one designed by More as an imaginal machine freeing us from the tyranny of the present while undermining master plans for the future.

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