Perspectives on Anarchist Theory Call for Contributions: Beyond the Crisis

Rapid policy changes, funding shifts and cuts, spikes in hate crimes, inflammatory rhetoric, corrupt democratic processes, and international etiquette blunders characterize the current political situation in the United States.  Since the new regime assumed power, the immediate dangers to people of color, immigrants, queer folks, and the poor have escalated. We respond with the urgency of firefighters, racing from hot spot to hot spot, putting out flames where they threaten to consume our communities. We remain on constant high alert to respond to the next hate crime, the next anti-immigrant raid, the next attack on the planet.

In these moments of urgency, it can feel as if we will never be able to do enough—as if our long-term campaigns are too slow to develop, our reach too short.  How do we respond? Does this cycle require us to drop everything in order to react? Must we abandon our own more proactive, visionary agendas, our long-term strategic thinking, our imagining and pre-figuring of alternatives to the existing society?  Let us remember that none of this appeared just this year, out of nowhere. Capitalism, war, racism, fascism, xenophobia, misogyny, and other forces of oppression have long been shaping the terrain in which we fight. If we neglect our own aspirations, then we’ve already lost.

It often seems as if apocalypse is just around the corner, a feeling reflected in media ranging from news to science fiction.  Authors like Nnedi Okorafor, Kim Stanley Robinson, and China Mieville speculate upon our future, using the dystopic breakdown of existing systems as a context for imagining radical alternatives.  We gain lessons from these visions, and use them as practice in our thinking.
But what if the apocalypse has already arrived? Perhaps it crept up with uneven steps, manifesting differently in diverse spaces and systems, gradually unfolding into where we are today. What then are the opportunities before us, not just to resist, but to advance and thrive? With catastrophic futures looking less and less unreal, what would we do to survive? What would we salvage? What would we build and make? What kinds of systems, what kind of cultures? How would we live together and take care of each other?

Those are the questions the Perspectives on Anarchist Theory editorial collective is pondering. For this next print issue, we want to encourage you to think beyond the crisis. We call for works (i.e., articles, essays, interviews, comics, etc.) reflecting on lessons and ideals of utopian freedom struggles related to pro-active movement initiatives currently taking place and already helping us deal with both what is being experienced now, and what is yet to come. We want to build and share our on-the-ground work toward the creation of a solid foundation of anarchist praxis.
Additionally, we are looking for book review essays, preferably discussing two or more titles. At the moment, we are particularly interested in, but not limited to the following authors and books:
From AK Press:
Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown
Against the Fascist Creep, Alexander Reid Ross
Guerrillas of Desire, Kevin Van Meter
Hegemony How-to, Jonathan Matthew Smucker
From PM Press: 
Out of the Ruins: the Emergence of Radical Informal Learning Spaces, eds. Robert H. Haworth and John M. Elmore
Reassessing the Transnational Turn, eds. Constance Bantman and Bert Altena
From Other Presses:
New York 2140, by Kim Stanley Robinson paired up with Totalitopia, by John Crowley.
American War, by Omar El Akkad paired up with Requiem for the American Dream, by Noam Chomsky.
Borne, A Novel, by Jeff VanderMeer paired up with Four Futures: Life After Capitalism, by Peter Frase.
Hope in the Dark paired up with The Mother of All Questions, both by Rebecca Solnit.
Tales of Two Americas, by John Freeman
 
We prioritize underrepresented voices, and we value accessibility and clarity in the rigorous investigation of ideas.

Email submissions to:

PerspectivesOnAnarchistTheory@gmail.com by November 15^st, 2017.

 

{Roger Peet’s work – he did “Face It” at top – can be seen here! }