AgitProp

[AgitProp #22] Means and Ends: The Anarchist Critique of Seizing State Power

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Author: Zoe Baker

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The anarchist critique of seizing state power is often caricatured as being based on an abstract moral opposition to the state that ignores the harsh realities we are currently facing. Upon carefully reading historical anarchist authors, however, one discovers that the real reason why they argued that revolutionaries should not seize existing state power was because it was impractical for achieving their goals.

From the website of the Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra.

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AgitProp #20 – The Philosophy of Atheism

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AgitProp 20 - The Philosophy of Atheism - Emma Goldman

Author: Emma Goldman

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To give an adequate exposition of the philosophy of atheism, it would be necessary to go into the historical changes of the belief in a Deity, from its earliest beginning to the present day. But that is not within the scope of the present paper. However, it is not out of place to mention, in passing, that the concept God, Supernatural Power, Spirit, Deity, or in whatever other term the essence of Theism may have found expression, has become more indefinite and obscure in the course of time and progress. In other words, the God idea is growing more impersonal and nebulous in proportion as the human mind is learning to understand natural phenomena and in the degree that science progressively correlates human and social events…

First published in February 1916 in Emma Goldman’s
Mother Earth journal.

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AgitProp #19 – Anarchism and Crime

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AgitProp #19 - Anarchism and Crime - SolFed

Author: Solidarity Federation

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Anarchists are repeatedly accused by our detractors of being idealist, utopian and impractical. One matter, on which the libertarian perspective is often seen as particularly weak, is the thorny topic of crime. It would be fair to say that the “all coppers are bastards”-type polemics trotted out with tiresome regularity do little to convince the potential convert that revolutionaries have anything of substance to offer as an alternative to the crime ridden status quo. Moreover, this continued failure to adequately address lay people’s basic questions with satisfactory answers surely goes a long way in explaining why contemporary anarchism has failed to gain a firm foothold in the collective psyche of the population. Here we offer one contribution towards addressing this perennial shortcoming.

From Direct Action, Issue #46, magazine of the Solidarity Federation
www.direct-action.org.uk

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AgitProp #17 – Some Ideas for Community Action

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AgitProp 17 - Some Ideas for Community ActionAuthor: Unknown   |   File size: 179 KB

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These are a few ideas which are open to being added to, changed, and adapted to reflect the needs of particular communities.

Despite the efforts of politicians and professionals to lump together working class communities as problem areas to be policed, those of us who live in these communities often see things differently. For us the problems we encounter daily are often not of our own making. Poverty, inadequate housing and crime are problems that come with the way society is structured. By taking control of our own communities, and deciding for ourselves how we should manage them, we are not only getting rid of the parasites who cause our problems but also starting on the path to a new type of society where each of us can be free to live our lives as we choose.

Republished from Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism, #4, online at:
http://zabalaza.net/2003/06/04/zabalaza-4-june-2003/

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AgitProp #15 – Privilege Theory: The Politics of Defeat

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AgitProp #15 - Privilege Theory: The Politics of DefeatAuthor: Unknown | File size: 516 KB

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I’ve been blissfully ignorant of these ideas of privilege and the concept of checking it until very recently. It came across my radar after the fall out of a twitter row. A set of ideas were put forward, and argument was made. The response to this argument boiled down to the person was writing it from a perspective of “white male privilege”. The issues were side stepped.

I assumed that this was an abuse of a theory that I didn’t understand, that privilege theory wasn’t simply a handy tool to dismiss an argument because you don’t like the person making it. I asked on twitter for some links so I could find out what this theory was really about. The most interesting and by interesting I mean the most infuriating was A Class Struggle Anarchist Analysis of Privilege Theory – from the Women’s Caucus.

Found at the SabCat site

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AgitProp #14 – Identity Politics, Class and Autonomous Organising

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AgitProp-14-Identity-Politics-Class-and-Autonomous-Organising-TimothyAuthor: Timothy | File size: 200 KB

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This talk is at a midpoint between being an original work, and being an exegesis of Selma’s James justly famous “Sex, Race and Class.” This astonishingly brilliant work contains within itself the clear foundations of a historical materialist, or Marxist, conception of the relationship between capitalism and oppression. Because I have mixed in many of my own original points, both intentionally and no doubt by accidental misinterpretation, I would strongly suggest everyone here goes and reads the original.

This text is taken from an audio recording of a talk and discussion in the Black Rose anarchist social centre in Sydney on the theme of identity politics and its relevance today. The text is taken from the website of the Workers’ Solidarity Movement. Go to the WSM site here

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