instituteforanarchiststudies

In Defense of Autonomy: Seattle’s Organized Protest Zone Advanced the Movement for Black Lives

by Michael Reagan

What is unthinkable, or was at the beginning of the month, is the power of the Black Lives Matter movement in the streets. The emergence of the autonomous zone is a pinnacle of that power, a significant victory. It demonstrates the ability of popular power to win the impossible from structures of white supremacy – the state and the propertied interests they represent. That victory, and the subsequent diminution of state violence, is a major step forward for community self-control and autonomy. It shows that ending anti-Black violence is the first and most basic step to honoring Black life.

Anarchist Studies Reviews Guerrillas of Desire

by Robin Jervis

Guerrillas of Desire begins with a self-confessed provocation: the left misunderstands resistance. The implications of this claim, which forms the central thesis of the work, have huge significance for those with an interest in both Marxist or anarchist approaches to resistance, and the book goes a long way towards building bridges between these two approaches, highlighting the contribution made to the understanding of class conflict by autonomist Marxists.

Casting Spells, Blowing Bubbles

by Hoyt

The hard part of this distancing at work—other than not being able to hug anyone, even though we’re all under stress and i haven’t had a single hug in weeks—is navigating the smaller spaces, like the kitchen. We have to do a lot more communicating. “I just need to get water at the sink.” “I’m passing through to the office.” “I’m going that way.” “You go first.” We treat each other with exceeding courtesy.

Call for Submissions: Perspectives on Anarchist Theory / Special Issue: “Pandemics from the Bottom Up”

Just as rapidly as COVID-19 spread around the world, top-down responses that have allowed national governments to consolidate their power have proliferated in the opening months of 2020. At the same time, there has been an outbreak of antiauthoritarian responses to the disease and its impacts that look beyond the state and build power beyond this crisis.

Pop Mob Benefit

For every book on fascism and antifascism that you buy from AK Press through March 20th, they will donate $5 to Pop Mob.

We are all we really have

The Cooperative Commonwealth: An Anarchism for the 21st Century?

by Robert Christl with art by Roger Peet

Mutual aid associations have historically emerged from disenfranchised populations’ struggle to survive inequality. During the late nineteenth century, when European and American states offered little social welfare, the destitute pragmatically combined their resources out of necessity. Meanwhile, anarchists recognized that workers’ mutual aid associations such … Read more

Toys for Utopia

by Alexander Riccio

(art by Elliott – justseeds.org) Utopia 101: Beginner’s Calisthenics According to historian Betsy Hartmann, apocalyptic sensibilities are disproportionately popular in the United States as compared to the rest of the world. Such has constituted what Hartmann describes as the “America syndrome,” where puritanical culture and … Read more

Signs of the Revolution: Deaf Justice and Anarchist Praxis

by Tristan Wright The Deaf community is a sociolinguistic minority in the United States. While most people are familiar with terms like “racism,” “sexism,” “white supremacy,” or “patriarchy,” they are unlikely to have heard the word used to describe oppression of d/Deaf people: “audism.”  The oppression … Read more