o n e
Mike Ely (Kasama) has re-published Christopher Day’s essay ‘The Historical Failure of Anarchism’ [PDF]:
‘The Historical Failure of Anarchism’ was written for a conference on anarchist strategy in 1996 and subsequently became the object of controversy within the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation where it was seen as a break with anarchism. The resulting debates precipitated the breakup of Love and Rage in 1998. Members of Love and Rage went on to work in the Fire By Night organizing committee, Bring the Ruckus and the North East Federation of Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC) among other projects. For further background on the history of Love and Rage people can read “After Winter Must Come Spring,” a summation of Love and Rage’s experience by the Fire By Night Organizing Committee published by Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
(‘Fire by Night’ disappeared shortly after forming; the FRSO is to be confused with the FRSO.)
t w o
“Judy Greenway writes on anarchism, feminism, utopianism, the politics of gender and sexuality, and more… Current research interests include the history of anarchism, gender and sexual politics in Britain from the 1880s, and biographical research on poet, socialist and feminist, Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne.”
t h r e e
A historical failure known as Noam Chomsky has some thoughts on “Crisis and Hope: Theirs and Ours” (Democracy Now, July 3, 2009).
f o u r
A loser named “Sean is a writer, an anarcho-communist, a vegan, a freethinker, and a feminist ally. He eats. He sleeps. He drinks a lot of coffee and tea. On occasion, Sean will listen to music, not just play it in the background. Has been known to “think too much”. He can be found at several other places online. Here’s [his blog].”
f i v e
From The Country Formerly Known As Bolshevik & Then Communist Russia, a small group of artistic also-rans, deadbeats, down-and-outers, duds, flops, flunkees and has-beens are still daubing paint onto canvas:
Local Artists Take Work Outside in Political Protest
Sergey Chernov
The St. Petersburg Times
July 24, 2009
A group of local artists is taking its art into the street to make a statement, turning exhibitions into political protests and supplementing protests with its artwork.
Having held two street shows in St. Petersburg late last month, they took their exhibition to Moscow at the weekend, where it was part of a demonstration in support of a young man persecuted by the police on Saturday.
Called “Managed Democracy: Horror from Nature,” the series of paintings was created during a 14-day open-air hunger strike, in which several artists sat in a park near Smolny Institute, home to City Hall, creating paintings protesting police arbitrariness in May and June.
They demanded an investigation into and punishment of the bureaucrats and police officers responsible for dispersing a 300-strong crowd who came to hold an authorized anarchist Pirate Street Party as part of the May Day demonstrations (over 130 were detained, officially for “crossing the road in the wrong place.”) They also demanded the release of artist Artyom Loskutov, who was arrested on drug charges in Novosibirsk in mid-May, and an investigation into the activities of the “E” (anti-extremism) Center that was reported to be behind Loskutov’s case…
See also : “Uranium is ace!” (On Angarsk) // antifa notes : russia (May 27, 2009).
s i x
@ndy (slackbastard) has replied to Christopher Day’s essay ‘The Historical Failure of Anarchism’ below:
I’m sailing away, set an open course for the virgin sea
I’ve got to be free, free to face the life that’s ahead of me
On board, I’m the captain, so climb aboard
We’ll search for tomorrow on every shore
And I’ll try, oh Lord, I’ll try to carry on
I look to the sea, reflections in the waves spark my memory
Some happy, some sad
I think of childhood friends and the dreams we had
We live happily forever, so the story goes
But somehow we missed out, on that pot of gold
But we’ll try best that we can to carry on
A gathering of angels appeared above my head
They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they did
They said come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me
*you guys*
Come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me
Come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me
*ya guys had it*
Come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me…
Bonus!
Either you repeat what everybody else is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound as though you just came down from Neptune.
If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion.
We can be sure that either there will be a world without war or no world at all.
