Anarchist Essays

In this essay, Deric Shannon outlines the anarchist analysis and critique of capitalism. He also gives some potential explanations for capitalism's resilience. Deric Shannon is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Emory University's Oxford College. His most recent books are The State of State Theory: State Projects, Repression, and Multi-sites of Power and Interdisciplinary Approaches to Pedagogy and Place-Based Education: From the Abstract to the Quotidian. Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Sonia Hernández describes the central role Mexican women played in the emergence of anarcho-syndicalist organizing during the early 20th century. She examines the emergence of transnational feminism influenced by anarchist ideas in the Gulf of Mexico region - such women's labor activism left an indelible mark on the greater history of the US-Mexican borderlands. Sonia Hernández is a Professor of History at Texas A&M University. Her most recent publications are For a Just and Better World: Engendering Anarchism in the Mexican Borderlands, 1900-1938 (University of Illinois Press, 2021) and "Gendering Transnational State Violence: Intertwined Histories of Intrigue and Injustice along the U.S.-Mexican Borderlands, 1900-1913," Journal of American History, Volume 110, Issue 2, September 2023: 258-281. Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Benjamin Franks identifies the core principles that lead anarchists to reject participation in democratic elections. It then explores the occasions where anarchists have engaged in different forms of electoral engagement and showing the particular conditions that make some constitutional interventions compatible with anarchist principles. Benjamin Franks is a Senior Lecturer in Social and Political Philosophy, School of Social and Environmental Sustainability, University of Glasgow. His most recent publications are: Anarchism, Postanarchism and Ethics (Rowman and Littlefield, 2020) and (2020) “Four models of anarchist engagements with constitutionalism”. Theory in Action, 13(1), pp. 32-69. Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Carne explores the spiritual dimension of anarchism, which he once assumed was more a ‘political’ philosophy about how people make decisions and transact business. He concludes that there is indeed a vital spiritual element and moreover that anarchism centres love and human connection at its core. Carne Ross is a writer. His most recent book is ‘The Leaderless Revolution: how ordinary people will take power and change politics in the 21st century’. His articles, films and other writing can be found at carneross.com. Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, William Marling asks why there seems to be so much rhetoric in/about anarchism. He digs for an answer in his recent book on Ammon Hennacy, finding an answer in the practice of "parrhesia," or speaking truth to power. William Marling is Professor of American Literature and Film at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. His most recent books are Christian Anarchist: The Life of Ammon Hennacy and Gatekeepers: The Emergence of World Literature. Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Rhiannon Firth reads from an article published in DOPE Magazine issue 22, which is part 2 of a 2-part summary of her latest book, Disaster Anarchy: Mutual Aid and Radical Action, published by Pluto Press last Autumn. In it, she offers a response to the question: Do anarchist approaches to disaster relief have more to offer beyond state-friendly 'social capital', mopping up the failures of the austere neoliberal state? How do anarchists engaged in disaster relief stay radical, rather than just papering over the cracks in a failing neoliberal system? Rhiannon Firth is Lecturer in Sociology of Education at IOE, UCL's faculty of Education and Society. Her most recent publication is Disaster Anarchy: Mutual Aid and Radical Action (Pluto 2022) and she is soon to publish the co-edited volume Utopian and Dystopian Explorations of Pandemics and Ecological Breakdown: Entangled Futurities (Palgrave, 2024). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Gabriele Montalbano considers the Italian-speaking anarchists of the end of the nineteenth century and their involvement and legacy in trade union movements and strikes in Tunis during the first decade of the twentieth century. This essay demonstrates the connection between diasporas, anarchism, and labour movements, and the place of Tunis in the global radical network. For the English version of the talk: 00.41 - 16:07 For the Italian version of the talk: 16.11 - 30.31 Gabriele Montalbano is Postdoctoral Researcher and Adjunct Professor in History of Colonial and Postcolonial Spaces and in History of Maghreb at the University of Bologna. His most recent publications are ‘Tunis in the Global Radical Web’ and Les Italiens de Tunisie. Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Javier Sethness Castro presents a new, queer reading of Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy's life and art. By referencing homoeroticism in Tolstoy's diaries and comparing the anarchist writer's libidinal and political desires with historical and literary examples of uprisings and revolts, Sethness highlights the liberatory potential of queer anarchism and sexual revolution. Javier Sethness Castro is a primary-care provider, author, and translator. His most recent publications are Queer Tolstoy: A Psychobiography and Eros and Revolution: The Critical Philosophy of Herbert Marcuse. Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Ryan Essex considers what anarchy could do for health and healthcare. Drawing on a number of historical and contemporary examples he argues that anarchist thinking and praxis is too often overlooked and has the potential to radically alter how we approach health. Ryan Essex is a Research Fellow at the University of Greenwich. His most recent publications include explorations into the intersections of healthcare and resistance and anarchy and health. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Clara Vlessing looks at the cultural memory of Louise Michel (1830-1905). The essay compares Michel’s domestic remembrance with her international afterlives to explore how an anarchist individual is adopted, appropriated or taken as the nominal leader for many different causes. Clara Vlessing is a lecturer in comparative literature at Utrecht University. Her most recent article “Campaigns to Remember: Writing in the Afterlives of Sylvia Pankhurst” appears in Nineteenth Century Gender Studies. Her chapter "Scarcity in Visual Memory: Creating a Mural of Sylvia Pankhurst” is included in the newly published edited collection The Visual Memory of Protest (Amsterdam University Press). Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Robert Leach discusses the gradual awakening of British radicals after the sleepy 1950s, especially some of the festivals that they mounted. Robert Leach is former lecturer at Edinburgh and Birmingham Universities, freelance theatre director, and writer. His most recent works include the two-volume Illustrated History of British Theatre and Performance, the biography Sergei Tretyakov: A Revolutionary Writer in Stalin’s Russia, and the poetry collection Unraveled Knots. Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365 Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations

In this essay, Chi Shing LEE discusses the relationship between anarchism and nationalism. He introduces the anarchist thought of Ng Chung-yin, an important anarchist figure in Hong Kong during the early 1970s, and elaborates how his anarchism exposes the contingency of the concept of national origin. Chi Shing LEE is a PhD Candidate at Chinese University of Hong Kong. His most recent publication is "The utopian homeland: new left internationalism, diasporic Chinese nationalism, and anarchism in Hong Kong, 1969–1973.” The Global Sixties: An Interdisciplinary Journal 16 (1): 1-21. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, adapted from his recently published book, Anarchist Atheist Punk Rock Teacher, DaN McKee reflects on his personal experiences with the inner conflict of being an anarchist teacher working within a school-system built on discipline and control. He looks back on his misguided attempts to subvert such systems through strict adherence to their absurd rules, and the more successful moments of subversion that came when he restored humanity and horizontalism to his classroom. DaN McKee received his PhD from Cardiff University in 2009 and is currently Head of Theology and Philosophy at a secondary school in the West Midlands. Alongside Anarchist Atheist Punk Rock Teacher: A Memoir of Struggle, Grief, Philosophy and Hope (out now on Earth Island), his recent publications include Authentic Democracy: An Ethical Justification of Anarchism and ‘Character Flaws – An Anarchist Critique of Character Education in England’s Secondary Schools’ in Anarchist Studies. His forthcoming paper, ‘An Error of Punishment Defences in the Context of Schooling’ will be published in the Journal of Philosophy of Education soon. DaN also produces music under the name of Strangely Shaped By Fathers and runs the websites www.philosophyunleashed.com and www.everythingdanmckee.com Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Pablo Angel Lugo analyzes the involvement of anarchists in assisting illegal immigrants through the production of forged documents, facilitating their lawful settlement in the UK between 2015 and 2019. Pablo Angel Lugo is the sole judicial expert in Public Art in Mexico. His recent publications include "Theft, Plagiarism, and Destruction: Violated Creators and Artists" and "Practices of Disobedience and Clandestine Citizenship: A Proposal Towards an Anarchist Theory of Art." The latter examines a phenomenon that occurred in the UK between 2015 and 2019, where a group of anarchists assisted illegal immigrants by producing forged documents that facilitated their legal settlement in the country. 00.38 -14:43 English 14:48 – 28:42 Spanish Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Richard White encourages us to think about why anarchists should embrace the plight of farmed animals, insects and more than human worlds. If anarchism is a understood as a ‘purity of rebellion’ then how might we reflect this more fully in own praxis? Richard is a Reader in Human Geography at Sheffield Hallam University. Richard’s most recent publications are ‘Critical Animal Studies and Activism’ (2023) and ‘Vegan Geographies: Spaces beyond violences, ethics beyond speciesism’ (2022). Details of these and other publications can be found here. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Jesse Cohn reconsiders the European anarchist tradition's place in modernity. How might our commitments to modernity's foundations compromise our alliances with peoples whom modernity has marginalized? Can we disentangle anarchism from those assumptions? Jesse Cohn teaches English at Purdue Northwest in Indiana. His most recent publications are his translation of Daniel Colson's A Little Philosophical Lexicon of Anarchism from Proudhon to Deleuze and (with Eugene Kuchinov) a translation of Abba Gordin's revolutionary fable, Why? Or, How a Peasant Got Into the Land of Anarchy. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Spencer Beswick argues that anarchist infrastructure, values, and tactics played a key role in the development of militant antifascism in the late twentieth century United States. He explores how anarchists in Anti-Racist Action (1987-2013) and Love and Rage (1989-1998) confronted fascists in the streets while also organizing radical movements that sought to address the root causes of the broader social crisis. Spencer Beswick is a PhD Candidate at Cornell University writing a dissertation titled “Love and Rage: Revolutionary Anarchism in the Late Twentieth Century.” His most recent publications are “From the Ashes of the Old: Anarchism Reborn in a Counterrevolutionary Age (1970s-1990s)” in Anarchist Studies and “Defending Democracy Through Elections Won’t Be Enough to Stop Fascism” in Truthout. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Chris Rossdale reflects on the status of rebellion as a political concept. While Extinction Rebellion have been the most prominent advocates of rebellion in recent times, the essay also looks at right-wing mobilisations in order to situate rebellion as entangled with liberal citizenship and bourgeois freedom. Nevertheless the essay closes by arguing that rebellion is essential to anarchist politics, turning to Black Anarchism for a more radical conception. Chris is Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Bristol. They write about social movements, rebellious politics, and militarism and state violence. Their recent publications have engaged with the Black Panther Party as radical theorists of racial militarism and security, and explored the continuities between the arms trade and police power. They tweet at @crossdale. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

Saidiya Hartman asks, “Is love a synonym for abolition?”. bell hooks writes that “true love requires an ongoing commitment to constructive struggle and change”. This essay proposes that anarchism is a practice of honest, dedicated and expansive love that opens our lives and our political societies to the possibility of transformation. Charlotte Lowell is an undergraduate student at Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, where they investigate ‘how things change’ in the context of love, physics and anarchism. This episode of ‘Anarchist Essays’ was supported by a grant from The Lipman-Miliband Trust. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Nora Ziegler critically explores “radical hospitality” as a diversity of tactics that co-construct relationships of mutual aid across differences of power. Her reflections are based on her experience of living and working in the London Catholic Worker’s house of hospitality for migrants with no recourse to public funds. Nora Ziegler is an independent researcher and writer, active in mutual aid and union organising. Her most recent publications are “Power Relations in Grassroots Groups: An Anarchist Dialectics” and “Herd Mentality, Deathbed Radicalism and Other Things On My Not-To-Do List”. This episode of ‘Anarchist Essays’ was supported by a grant from The Lipman-Miliband Trust. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Kiara Mohamed Amin and Priya Sharma explore the liberatory potential of psychedelic trips, arguing that such practices possess the potential to humanise parts of the self that have been dehumanised by capitalist systems of living. Kiara Mohamed Amin is a trans, Somali multidisciplinary artist based in Toxteth, Liverpool. His work focuses on what it means to live at the intersections of marginalisation and still choose joy, healing and community as an act of radical living and dreaming. He uses different mediums to explore intergenerational trauma and looks to see where we are in eternity through astrology, somatic movements and divination. Priya Sharma is a Lecturer in Arts Management, Policy and Practice at the University of Manchester. Her research explores articulations of feminist and queer British South Asian identity on social media platforms. Her research interests include radical politics, diaspora experiences and the social impact of new media technologies. The authors' first co-authored publication 'Trip where you stand: Towards psychedelic liberation' will be published in July 2023 by Feminist Review. This episode of ‘Anarchist Essays’ was supported by a grant from The Lipman-Miliband Trust. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this podcast, Dai and Steve discuss the issues that deaf people and deaf communities face in capitalist society and the ways in which deaf people have traditionally framed their engagement and resistance to these issues. We discuss the issues that anarchists need to consider when reflecting on how anarchist spaces can be more accessible to deaf people. For a video of this talk in British Sign Language, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9_Z6nkFUqw For a text version, see the Anarchist Studies blog: https://anarchiststudies.noblogs.org/post/2023/01/16/anarchism-and-deaf-people/ Dai O’Brien is an Associate Professor in BSL and Deaf Studies in York St John University. His most recent papers are M Chua, Maartje De Meulder, Leah Geer, Jonathan Henner, Lynn Hou, Okan Kubus, Dai O’Brien and Octavian Robinson (2022) ‘1001 Small Victories: Deaf Academics and Imposter Syndrome’ in The Palgrave Handbook of Imposter Syndrome in Higher Education, and ‘Theorising the deaf body: using Lefebvre and Bourdieu to understand deaf spatial experience’ in Cultural Geographies. Steve is a Lecturer in BSL and Deaf Studies at York St John University. His most recent papers are: Emery, S. D., & Iyer, S. (2021) ‘Deaf migration through an intersectionality lens’. Disability & Society, 1-22; and Emery, S.D. (2016) 'Deaf Rights Activism, Global Protest', in G. Gertz & P. Boudreault (eds) The SAGE Deaf Studies Encyclopedia, SAGE: C.A., 266-271. He has written a joint chapter and contributed to the others in the forthcoming publication: Kusters, A., Moriarty Harrelson, E., Le-Marie, A., Iyer, S., Emery, S. D. (2023) International Deaf Mobilities. Gallaudet University Press: Washington D.C. This episode of ‘Anarchist Essays’ was supported by a grant from The Lipman-Miliband Trust. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Kim Kelly discusses her opinions and experiences with the past and present of leftist gun ownership and armed self-defense. Kim Kelly is a freelance journalist, and author of FIGHT LIKE HELL: The Untold History of American Labor. This episode of ‘Anarchist Essays’ was supported by a grant from The Lipman-Miliband Trust. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Gloria Truly Estrelita provides an overview of the history of anarchism in Indonesia. Co-authored with Jim Donaghey, Sarah Andrieu and Gabriel Facal, this essay discusses the early roots of anarchist movements in the archipelago in the context of anti-colonialism and nationalism in the late 1800s and early 1900s; details the abolition of leftist movements, including anarchism, in the 1960s; traces the re-emergence of anarchism as part of protest and counter-cultural movements in the 1990s; highlights the shifting forms of state repression in the 2010s; and points to the importance of anarchist critique for the contemporary Indonesian context. Gloria Truly Estrelita is a PhD candidate in the Department of History and Civilisation at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, France. Member of Centre Asie du Sud-Est (CASE), she is also one of the founders of AlterSEA, Observatory of Political Alternatives in Southeast Asia (GT Estrelita's most recent publication is an article on GIS Asie: 'Can progressive thinking exist in contemporary Indonesia?' For the English version: 0:46 – 19:03 For the Bahasa Indonesian version: 19:09-37:32 For text versions of these essays, see the Anarchist Studies blog: English - https://anarchiststudies.noblogs.org/article-a-brief-history-of-anarchism-in-indonesia/ Bahasa Indonesian - https://anarchiststudies.noblogs.org/article-sejarah-singkat-anarkisme-di-indonesia/ This episode of ‘Anarchist Essays’ was supported by a grant from The Lipman-Miliband Trust. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Jim Donaghey reads the introductory chapter to the newly published book Smash The System! Punk Anarchism as a Culture of Resistance, edited by Jim Donaghey, Will Boisseau and Caroline Kaltefleiter, and published by Active Distribution in December 2022. The volume includes 18 chapters, offering a snapshot of anarchist punk as a culture of resistance across the globe. In these diverse and internationalist contexts we witness struggles against racism and colonialism in South Africa, resistance to neo-liberalism and state oppression in Latin America, resistance to police brutality and capitalism in Western, Central and Southeast Europe, struggles for equality and against patriarchy in the US, and anarchist resistance against injustice and authoritarianism in Asia. Smash The System! is the first volume in the Anarchism and Punk Book Project series. A written version of this essay is available on the Anarchist Studies blog. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Maia Ramnath discusses the concept of the racial capitalocene as a framework for linking anticolonialism and climate justice. As part of a critical dialogue across time with earlier movements, in this case the Progressive Writers Association in South Asia, this framework offers a global context in which to place specific liberation struggles that's appropriate to the present day, as anti-fascism and Afro-Asian solidarity did for the PWA at key periods in the 20th century. Maia Ramnath is an independent scholar based in New York City. Occupations include writing, research, teaching, tour guiding, organizing, performing and choreographing (dance and aerial). Maia’s most recent publications are Art for Life: Conversations with the Progressive Writers Moment: on Pens, Swords, and Internationalism, from Antifascism to Afro-Asian Solidarity; "The Other Aryan Supremacy," in the collection No Pasaran!: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis, and "Reawakening Asia Jaag Utha," in the forthcoming Lateral forum "Toward Third Worlding." This episode of ‘Anarchist Essays’ was supported by a grant from The Lipman-Miliband Trust. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

This special issue of the Anarchist Essays podcast features a discussion between JoNina Ervin, Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, and William C. Anderson. It originally appeared on the Black Autonomy Podcast. In October 2021, Pluto published the definitive edition of Anarchism and the Black Revolution by Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin. The book first connected Black radical thought to anarchist theory in 1979, and now amidst a rising tide of Black political organizing, this foundational classic has been republished with a wealth of original material, including forewords by William C. Anderson and Joy James. This episode of Black Autonomy Podcast is brought to you in collaboration with the Pluto Press podcast 'Radicals in Conversation,' in which JoNina Ervin hosts a discussion between Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin and William C. Anderson about Black anarchism across the generations. Ervin and Anderson discuss the reasons for the continued relevance and increasing popularity of Black anarchism today, what an ‘ungovernable’ radical movement might look like, and the contradictions inherent to single-issue and state-orientated political projects from the left. They also discuss Black nationalism, and put Anderson's book The Nation on No Map in conversation with Anarchism and the Black Revolution. This episode of ‘Anarchist Essays’ was supported by a grant from The Lipman-Miliband Trust Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Hannah Kass discusses how the state, capitalism, and property are interconnected systems, working together to produce peasant dispossession and hunger. To challenge these systems and their social relationships, she proposes food anarchy: a new pathway for the food sovereignty movement to wield in their struggle to challenge the current food regime. Hannah Kass is a joint Ph.D student in the Department of Geography and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hannah's most recent publication is the journal article from which this essay is adapted: ‘Food anarchy and the State monopoly on hunger’, published in The Journal of Peasant Studies. Kass, H. 2022. Food anarchy and the State monopoly on hunger. The Journal of Peasant Studies. DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2022.2101099 This episode of ‘Anarchist Essays’ was supported by a grant from The Lipman-Miliband Trust. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Jennifer Cole discusses how Peter Kropotkin's early writings on mutualism sit alongside Charles Darwin's writings on human evolution and underpin current interests within evolutionary anthropology on how human psychology, altruism and morality developed. Kropotkin is largely ignored within biological and evolutionary academia, however, even though his approach to human development offer a more cooperative and caring blueprint for society. Jennifer Cole, Lecturer in Global and Planetary Health at Royal Holloway University of London’s most recent publications include ‘Solidarity not charity’ and Manifesto for Mutual Aid. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Laura Galián delves into the history of anarchism in the south of the Mediterranean from a historical and historiographical perspective by reviewing the anti-authoritarian geographies of the southern shore of the Mediterranean and reassessing the postcolonial status of these emancipatory projects. For the English version: 0.40-14:10 For the Spanish version: 14.19-29.12 Laura Galián is an Assistant Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). Laura has recently published the book Colonialism, Transnationalism and Anarchism in the South of the Mediterranean (2020). Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Sophie Scott-Brown explores the life and times of anarchist autobiography. From Proudhon to Kropotkin, Goldman to Read, many anarchists have written their life stories and provided generations of readers an intimate glimpse of the radical life, but what else motivates this sort of memory making? Moreover, how has it changed over time and what can it tell us about the relationship between anarchist ideas and anarchist identities? Sophie Scott-Brown is a lecturer in Philosophy at UEA. Her latest book is Colin Ward and the Art of Everyday Anarchy (Routledge, 2022). Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Nathaniel Andrews explores both the role of children within anarchist activism, and anarchist understandings of childhood, focusing specifically on the Argentinian city of Rosario, in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Nathaniel Andrews is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute. His most recent publication is a co-authored article with Professor Richard Cleminson, titled ‘Introduction: New Directions in Spanish Anarchist Studies’, which forms part of a co-edited special issue of the Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies . He is currently working on his first monograph: a study of prefigurative politics in the Spanish and Argentinian anarchist movements, between 1890 and 1930. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Sarah Gelbard reflects on the messy relationship between punk, anarchy, and anarchism and ways it can be conceived of as identity, politics, scene, performance, and/or practice. For punks in academia and academics studying punk, how do we position ourselves in relation to the work, to power, and with our comrades? Sarah Gelbard is a Ph.D. candidate in urban planning at McGill University. Her research speaks to the ways marginalized and alternative urban groups negotiate with, subvert, and refuse the formal city-building project of mainstream placemaking and planning. She is a co-organizer of the Spaces of Struggle Radical Planning conferences and research group. Sarah is also the lead singer and bassist in the punk band Bad Missionary. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Frankie Hines argues that an anarchist literary theory requires engaging with the anarchist critique of representation and considering possibilities for non-representational literary modes. Rather than looking for representations of reality, he argues anarchist literature should instead be read for the political effects it produces; that is, as a form of direct action. Frankie Hines received his PhD in English Literature from the University of Westminster in 2021, submitting a thesis entitled Evading Representation: The Literature of Contemporary U.S. Anarchism. He is the author of "‘A movement that renovates people, as well as buildings’: squatting and neodomestic space in Seth Tobocman’s War in the Neighborhood”, published in Textual Practice in 2021. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Dorian Wallace discusses the use of music as a source of emancipatory inspiration, revolutionary practice, and transformational communal healing. He addresses the interconnections between music therapy, political music, and liberation psychology as the first step toward deeper exploration and discourse. Dorian Wallace is a composer, pianist, music therapist, and educator renowned for his stylistic versatility, improvisational skill, relentless confrontation against unjust social struggles, and the exploration of the complex and nuanced philosophical nature of transformation. In addition to a successful solo career, he regularly collaborates with artists such as Bonita Oliver, John Sanborn, Paul Pinto, Pamela Z, Charlotte Mundy, Frank London, and Nicholas Finch. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Janet Biehl discusses her new graphic memoir, Their Blood Got Mixed: Revolutionary Rojava and the War on ISIS, an exploration of the Rojava revolution as of the spring of 2019. She gives an overview of the revolution and the many and varied people she interviewed, explains how she came to write and illustrate the book, and offers her thoughts on the meaning of this remarkable experiment. Janet Biehl is an independent editor, author, artist, and translator. Her previous publications are (as author) Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin (Oxford University Press, 2015), and (as translator) Michel Knapp et al., Revolution in Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women's Liberation in Syrian Kurdistan (Pluto, 2016). The independent film that Janet refers to, called Road to Rojava, will appear in 2023. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Elizabeth Vasileva discusses what kind of ethics are compatible with anarchist principles and makes the case for joyful, relational ways of being together. Elizabeth Vasileva is a lecturer at the Free University of Brighton. Her PhD is available to download from your usual choice of legal-grey-zone book repository. Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, click here. You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more here. Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Mark Bray discusses propaganda by the deed and the roles of human rights and 'terrorism' in the anarchist-led transnational campaigns against the "revival of the Inquisition" in Spain at the turn of the twentieth century. Mark Bray is a historian of human rights, political violence, and radicalism in Modern Europe at Rutgers University. Bray's most recent publications are The Anarchist Inquisition: Assassins, Activists, and Martyrs in Spain and France (Cornell UP) and Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook (Melville House). Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365 Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations

In this essay, Alice Béja discusses how Emma Goldman and other anarchists "Americanized" anarchism in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century, using national tropes and references to counter government repression while maintaining their internationalist beliefs. The essay is based on the article "Dreaming (Un)American Dreams"; Anarchists and the Struggle to Define Americanism" (Journal for the Study of Radicalism, vol. 13, Number 1, Spring 2019). Alice Béja is Associate Professor in American Studies at the Lille Institute of Political Science (Sciences Po Lille) and a researcher at CERAPS-CNRS. Her most recent publications are "Left-Wing Radicalism in the United States: A Foreign Creed?" (Transatlantica journal of American studies) and "Emma Goldman" (in J-N Ducange, R. Keucheyan, S. Roza, eds, Histoire globale des socialismes, XIXè-XXIè siècles, Presses Universitaires de France, 2021). Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365 Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations

In this essay, Chantelle Gray talks about algorithmic governance - a new art of governing and government that treats individuals as data and the social world as a problem of big data sets - and the effects this is having on politics. Drawing on Tiqqun's The Cybernetic Hypothesis (2020), she thinks about anarchist responses to one of the most pressing issues of our time, namely how to prefigure social consistency in such a way that it produces conditions counter to algorithmic governmentality. Chantelle Gray is an Associate Professor in Philosophy. Her most recent publications are "Fabulation in a Time of Algorithmic Ecology: Making the Future Possible" (with Aragorn Eloff) in Technology, Urban Space and the Networked Community (edited by Saswat Samay Das and Ananya Roy Pratihar) and Anarchism after Deleuze and Guattari: Fabulating Futures. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365 Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations

In this essay, Michael A. Denner explores anarchism’s aesthetic attitude towards reality: What does anarchism "look like" in art? Using examples drawn from texts by two Russian thinkers, Leo Tolstoy and Viktor Shklovsky, Denner tries to answer the question: Why is art so important to the politics of anarchism? Michael Denner is devourer of universes at Stetson University, DeLand Florida (that's the USA... not far from Disney!) His most recent research is in film studies (What do cowboys eat?). He makes boots and raises bees. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365 Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations

In this essay, Anthony Ince explores how a state-centric understanding of the world, how it fits together, and our place in it, limits both popular and academic ideas of what forms of societal organisation are possible or desirable. Taking the geographical concept of territory as an example, the essay considers what could be done to reimagine the space of our world, to undermine the hegemonic grip of the state and imagine alternatives that operate against and beyond it. Anthony Ince is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at Cardiff University. His research cuts across geography and political/social theory through an interest in how grassroots forms of collective power interact with large-scale social processes, including recent publications on anti-fascist spatial strategy and neighbourhood-scale legacies of urban riots. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365 Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations

In this essay, Eric Laursen discusses the roots of the climate change crisis in the forces driving the modern State. He lays out an analysis that locates overreliance on fossil fuels in the State's partnership with capital and their mutual focus on promoting rapid economic growth at any cost. Eric Laursen is an independent scholar, journalist, and longtime anarchist activist, based in Massachusetts. He is the author, most recently, of The Operating System: An Anarchist Theory of the State (AK Press, 2021), and The Duty to Stand Aside: Nineteen Eighty-Four and the Wartime Quarrel of George Orwell and Alex Comfort (AK Press, 2018). Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365 Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations

In this essay, Jeff Ferrell discusses his lifelong practice of ‘dumpster diving’ (trash picking, skip diving) as a form of anarchist direct action. He argues that dumpster diving constitutes a direct intervention into consumer waste, environmental harm, and economic inequality, while also helping to shape networks of anarchist mutual aid. Jeff Ferrell is a retired professor of criminology and sociology. His latest books are Drift: Illicit Mobility and Uncertain Knowledge, published by University of California Press, and the forthcoming Last Picture, a collection of dumpster dived photographs, published by Atopia Projects. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365 Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations

In this essay, Hayyim Rothman discusses religious Jewish anarchism. Beginning with a survey of its historical and some of its theological foundations, he proceeds to highlight central themes in the work of one of its proponents, Rabba Avraham Heyn (1878-1957). Hayyim Rothman is an independent scholar of modern Jewish thought; his most recent publications include No Masters but God: Portraits of Anarcho-Judaism, and Knesset Yisrael ve-Milhamot ha-Goyim. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365 Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations

In this essay, Adam Barker discusses recurrent problems around non-Indigenous anarchists involved in land reclamation actions, along with Audra, a Kanonsionni'on:we (Ga-noon-soon-knee-on-way) resident of the Six Nations of the Grand River, and Delee, a Wet’suwet’en activist who has been involved in ongoing struggles in several communities. Audra and Delee's experiences and encounters with anarchists seeking to work in solidarity with Indigenous land reclamation struggles reveal patterns of patriarchal aggressions, disruptions of community relationships and internal dynamics, and poor reputation among Indigenous communities, but with suggestions for how some groups have done better solidarity work that can inform anarchist activists. Adam Barker is a Research Assistant in the Department of Geography at the University of Sheffield. Adam's most recent publication is Making and Breaking Settler Space: Five Centuries of Colonization in North America, with UBC Press. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365 Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations

In this essay, Iwona Janicka talks about one of the possible ways to understand contemporary anarchism in practice, that is, through the concept of ‘solidarity with singularity’ in a mimetic framework. This philosophical approach is able to account for the anarchist concerns not only with humans in need of solidarity but also with the nonhumans (plants, animals, the environment). Iwona Janicka is Assistant Professor and EU Maria Skłodowska-Curie COFUND Fellow at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Denmark. She is the author of Theorizing Contemporary Anarchism. Solidarity, Mimesis and Radical Social Change (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017). Currently she is working on the question of world-building in contemporary continental philosophy. Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365 Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations

In this essay, Laney Lenox discusses working as an anarchist anthropologist and the practical implications of designing methodological tools to reflect this political ethos. Through prioritizing process over outcomes, Lenox describes how research methods become political action. Laney Lenox, PhD Researcher in School of Applied Policy and Social Sciences, Ulster University, Northern Ireland. Lenox´s most recent publications are "Everyday Anarchism: Temporal Impermanence and Liberation in Everyday Action" and "Slow Journalism." Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365 Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations

In this essay, Vittorio Frigerio explores the often-fraught relationship between anarchism and the literary milieu in France, starting with a discussion of Proudhon’s opinions on literature and the place given to serialized novels in his newspapers, and presenting some of the many publications where writers and militants crossed paths, up until the Second World War. Vittorio Frigerio is Emeritus Professor of French at Dalhousie University (Halifax, N.S., Canada). He is the author of the recent book Nous nous reverrons aux barricades. Les feuilletons des journaux de Proudhon (1848-1850) (Grenoble : UGA, 2021), as well as of several others on anarchism and literary creation, including La littérature de l’anarchisme. Anarchistes de lettres et lettrés face à l’anarchie (Grenoble : ELLUG, 2014). Click here for more information on his activities. Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365 Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations

In this essay, Hamish Kallin muses on the links between Henri Lefebvre’s idea of a right to the city and the politics of anarchism. Hamish Kallin is Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Edinburgh. Kallin’s latest publications are on debt and gentrification and the rent gap. He is co-editor (with Giovanna Gioli, Bath Spa University) of Thinking as Anarchists: Selected Writings from Volontà from Edinburgh University Press, releasing in early 2022. Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365 Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations