From radical love letters

an anarchist history talk | + lists, links, recs 3

work worth doing. by Raechel Anne Jolie

an anarchist history talk | + lists, links, recs 3

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Dear ones, 

Last week, Peter and I gave a presentation at The Rhizome House called “The Radical History of Anarchism and Social Centers” which is something our collective dreamed up as a regularly occurring event to help give new-comers a sense of what the space is all about. As an educator who is a person both in radical spaces and on the internet, I am sad a lot about the sort of incoherent puzzle pieces that stand in as….movements? Identities? Social media brands? I’m not even sure how to identify what hurts my heart, but I can tell you it has something to do with my belief that history matters to any hope we have of a future. So many people know that capitalism is bad, the politicians are useless, and the Earth is in crisis, but if you don’t know that there are movements that have been thinking through and working against these same issues, it’s easy to grasp at disparate straws. 

I recently wrote a sort of plea for people to take radical movements more seriously. This matters to me a great deal because I truly believe that actually radical ideas and action are the things that will keep the planet and all of us alive—happy, thriving even. I am continually disheartened when I see writers criticize capitalism but focus their energy exclusively on electoral and policy changes; I feel near-desperate to shout, There is another way! I get similarly frustrated when people take on radical ideas through people/brands/platforms/orgs that are actually harmful to the kind of change I think most people crave; knowing the history and context behind different radical (and liberal-dressed-as-radical) tendencies actually matters in these moments. (I know, for my regulars, this is probably boring to read because I write a version of this like once every few months! Forgive me!) 

Our presentation focused a lot on the history of global anarchist (and anarchic) struggle because it shows how these ostensibly unreachable ideas have shown up in practice. We also talk a lot about the differences between anarchism and Marxism (state communism, specifically) because it was so fundamental to the origins of anarchist thought. This distinction didn’t used to feel important to me — to be honest, it felt a little bit like radical men LARPing as old-timey revolutionaries whenever I heard anyone talk about old anarchist/Marxist beef. But the longer I’m a part of movement work, the more I see how these differences do matter, especially when it comes to Marxist groups that feel justified in asserting authority (over protests, trans people, sex workers, etc.).  In the past twenty years I’ve waffled between aligning myself more with anarchists or Marxists, and there’s a reason I’ve landed solidly and happily back to my original roots—against all domination, including the supposed dictatorship of the proletariat. To be clear: there are many Marxists who are not authoritarians (“Some of my best friends are non-authoritarian Marxists!”). But the rise of fascistic logics aren’t relegated only to the Right, and in my own research on the current political climate related to sex and gender issues, the voices speaking against trans people, sex workers, incarcerated people, and other “lumpen” “degenerates” are coming from communists with platforms. (Lumpen is a Marxist term referring to the part of the working-class Marx considered useless, and “degen” is now very online commie slang/literal Nazi rhetoric.) 

If your eyes are glazing over because you’ve never been nerdy about these sort of niche radical splits, that’s totally cool! Not everyone needs to care about this stuff. What is important is that the more instances we have of collapse (collapse is definitely already here, it’s just impacting people to different degrees), the more we will see different entities try to convince people to follow their rulebook to survive— the liberals will promise green reform as long as you vote, the nonprofits will assure you they will fund solutions to the crisis if you just contribute a bit more to the executive director’s retirement fund, and the authoritarians (on both the Left and the Right) will promise revolution if you just toe the party line. The anarchists are never quite as visible because we’re not really in the game of recruitment, but we’ll be here, growing food and sharing it, getting people out of jail, and never demanding qualifiers to be worthy of care.

During the Q&A of the talk (which we didn’t record to protect people’s privacy), someone asked if I thought anarchist identity was important. “Not at all,” I said right away. I like calling myself an anarchist the way I like calling myself a punk, or a queer person — because it helps me find like-minded people with whom I can share community (and a good inside-joke meme). But there are perils to that kind of visible identity, including everything from increased state surveillance to seeming like a clubhouse that only certain cool kids can access. So although I like it for my social life, and for a framework I can turn to that helps me live a life aligned with my values, I don’t think everyone has to, or even should, “become an anarchist.” What I hope is that more and more people will be skeptical of prescriptive blueprint solutions from above, and instead have more faith in each other. What that looks like more concretely is hazy, because the “how” will be determined over and over again, through our relationships to small territories and the living things among them (read more from P on that here). It will be imagined through, in the words of adrienne maree brown: “critical connection more than critical mass.” 

This is more work than following a rulebook, but I can’t think of work more worth doing. 

***

Below! Reading/watching/listening recs, and a cute little gratitude list/peek into some cute personal happenings in my life lately. <3 

And, just for fun, here’s a sneak peek of some upcoming essays: an All Fours-inspired piece reflecting on my own relationship to making dramatic life changes in pursuit of pleasure/joy/passion/change; thinking about the many combinations of sex and work (sex work, sex with coworkers, writing about sex when writing is your work, and so on); relatedly, I’m hoping to do more newsletters related to/revealing more of my book research (lots about feminism and sexual politics); something buzzy/take-y because honestly I love writing that kind of stuff, so I’m committing to bite when the next exciting-to-me cultural phenomenon iron is hot. 

The summer (officially now, happy solstice!) sale is still on, just $30 for the whole year. <3 

I love you.

love & solidarity,

raechel

Reading.

A beautiful, heartbreaking, and importantly nuanced reflection on harm reduction, health, and what it means to want to survive

  • A deep-dive into QAnon-fueled conspiracy theories, impelledby reactionary desires to control gender and sexuality. 

  • Nic Antoinette is doing some incredible work at the intersections of personal finance, social justice, and extraordinary transparency. This essay describes her decision to divest from the stock market and rethink retirement, and it’s absolutely worth reading. I will say that the piece may be challenging to folks who have money anxiety (I had to take some deep breaths throughout) because Nic’s completely open about numbers (and many of us will not have similar numbers that we’re working with). That said, if you’re in a place to think more critically about how to align your money with your values, her newsletter is the place to be (and her workshops & workbooks!). 

  • This article says young women are fleeing organized religion (especially Christianity), which is interesting juxtaposed to the rise in tradwife content (recruitment?). I’ve always wondered if tradwife panic might be the thinkpiece industrial complex making mountains of molehills, but it’ll be good for me to sit with some data before drawing book conclusions about the phenomenon. 

  • Ashley Reese reflects on potential motherhood, very present widowhood, fear, and always love. 

  • Adriana Gallo wrote a really interesting essay on museum dining, postmodern food, and the social function of curated space; Alicia Kennedy turned it into a snazzy zine for The Desk Dispatch. 

    Watching.

    Other than I Saw the TV Glow, we haven’t watched any movies the past couple of weeks. The apartment is extremely hot so everything is uncomfortable, including sitting on the couch for longer periods of time. The only television of note is that P wanted to finish The Boys. I watched the first season and a half before I decided it was simply too violent for me, but since it’s been on in the house, I kind of got back into it. It’s still extremely violent, but it also has some of the sharpest and most explicitly anti-US-government stances I’ve seen in mainstream media, which is pretty cool. 

    Listening.

    I’m just going to let this tweet speak for me this week. :) :)

    Joy & Attention.

    a lovely birthday celebration for my uncle’s 70th. Get Shit Done Club with Nic Antoinette. my mom’s successful surgery! (and how cute she was on the drugs after surgery lol; she made like three different Friends-related jokes, it was very charming). the growing goslings. baby wood ducks. farmer’s market mornings. our anarchist history talk at Rhizome. fresh, local veggies. extremely loving and supportive friends (thanks to so many of you, but highlight KBW (&co) this week for an unexpected gift of care this week). crisp, cool cucumber salad. cooling rose water spray from R. the kitties, always. solstice celebrations. therapy. less time on IG. my memoir writing students, dang there is a lot of talent out there. P. seeing rain and cooler weather in the forecast next week. legs up the wall pose. taking care of my health, even when it brings up a lot of grief and some stress. & all of you, thank you so much for the support. <3

  • Comments

    anon (not verified) Sun, 06/23/2024 - 08:45

    All your references for social tendencies are just straight up garbage from Birdchan or Fedbook. This from someone who's still masking up at liberal venues.

    Radical this, radical that... what is radical anymore!? Can't tell coz I'm a college kid and Free Palestine!

    GO3 Tue, 06/25/2024 - 15:28

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    I love anarcho pop culture because of its accessibility and lack of security culture concerns. There's a lot of fun to be had there. Someone once said that there should be an above ground and a below ground. Trucker caps and afternoon naps, see you at the rock show.

    Tristram (not verified) Wed, 06/26/2024 - 00:33

    In reply to by GO3

    It is sooOoo ironic how Muhrican pop culture is sooOoo damn fun on this scurvinous planet and how in a wierd bewitching way it offers such a titillating opportunity to behave anarchically. Nine months before my tragic birth, my father, on the cusp of my ab ovo genesis, enacted his own personal anarchic freedoms upon my witless mother!

    GO3 Wed, 06/26/2024 - 14:46

    In reply to by Tristram (not verified)

    Initiatives like these are counter dystopian and breathe new life into the city. I have fond memories of riding the shuttle bus downtown and hanging out with the street punks at Easy Rollers and Inner Sanctum. Riding our skateboards on campus and the state capital, evading cops and frat boys. Getting wontons at the food cart. Finding out about punk shows and parties at the 12th Street house.

    anon (not verified) Wed, 06/26/2024 - 16:46

    In reply to by GO3

    I'd especially like to have more sex reports. Like people fucking and having fun doing it, and the thing spreading like a wild virus where even mom and pops get into it.

    Especially all the pesky details of how they got into this. "How do anarchists get into sex?" is a salient question.

    anon (not verified) Wed, 06/26/2024 - 22:21

    In reply to by GO3

    Sex is as common as drugs. i.e. it is controlled, privatized, commoeified. So it is common, but hardly accessible. You sure can get wily duck and slip your way between the legs by surprise, but the other tern for it.ia "sexual assault". Got that?

    So no, maybe it's common, but nowhere near a commons. And that's pisses me off about it. And I'm even more pissed off at pretend-radicals who still can't get such a rather straightforward nuance...

    Please provide with sex reports or else.

    anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 08:35

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    By "loaded political garbage" are you referring to the deep ressentiment, hatred, hostility, sexual objectification, misogyny, misanthropy, self-pity and self-loathing, racism, a sense of entitlement to sex, blaming of women and the sexually successful for their situation (which is often seen as predetermined due to biological determinism, evolutionary genetics or a rigged game), a sense of futility and nihilism, rape culture, and the endorsement of sexual and nonsexual violence against women and sexually active people?

    'cuz, yeah tOtally, the incels without all those defining characteristics of incels are tOtally kewl, brow....

    anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 09:22

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    Looks like you didn't even read the comment you were replying to... just barely got the thing about sex being controlled and knee-jerk conflated this with ressentiment or something. Imagine if Foucault and Reich would be living today... what big InCels these guise would be, aaaaaayyyy!

    anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 09:34

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    Oh but I did! I even quoted the tastiest morsel of stupidity to throw in your face as an example of the nonsense you be spewing into these fine anarchist comments, brahhhh!

    anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 13:57

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    U galaxy brain, I was being sarcastic about Foucault passing for an InCel..It's like you first confused any analysis of the control and institutionalizing patterns of sexuality, with being frustrated about some people having more sex than others.

    So you're a normie? I get it! Just keep your gross winner/loser social anal-ISIS away from an anarchist site, and be a good would you? Thanks, asshat.

    anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 14:03

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    So not only are you an incel you are also a virgin? I suppose that is a reason to hate women and anarchists. Carry on! Maybe actually try read some Foucault with all your spare time.

    anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 14:35

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    If only I had the spare time (or pig shifts) you got for posting boring ad hominems and scare quotes 24/7... I could read the entirety of Foucault writings even despite my dyslexia.

    anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 18:22

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    There is actually not a single scare quote in the entire chain of replies. How embarrassing! But not as embarrassing as trying to reclaim... incel. Sheesh!

    anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 19:09

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    No I have no idea who's dat "Fuocualt" guy.

    And yes, that unreadable syrupy drivel was ascare quote: "deep ressentiment, hatred, hostility, sexual objectification, misogyny, misanthropy, self-pity and self-loathing, racism, a sense of entitlement to sex, blaming of women and the sexually successful for their situation (which is often seen as predetermined due to biological determinism, evolutionary genetics or a rigged game), a sense of futility and nihilism, rape culture, and the endorsement of sexual and nonsexual violence against women and sexually active people"

    And no you don't need strictly quotation marks for a quote to be one. Emphasized text also works.

    And and and.. it's 06/27/2024 - 18:18 and you're still an asshat.

    GO3 Fri, 06/28/2024 - 09:34

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    You guise may be able to contribute to my zine idea since you seem knowledgeable. It's called "Wanking Together: A Sex Manual for Cyberpunks " I just need access to an AI zine maker because of course I won't do it the old fashioned way but we may need to draw some diagrams and write a few essays.

    anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 11:02

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    Oh, brow.
    Incels DO "come wiht all that". You are capable of calling the person that doesn't "come wiht all that" who is involuntarily celebate (yourself?) something else but the moment you call the person that doesn't "come wiht all that" who is involuntarily celebate (yourself?) an "incel" it does "come wiht all that".
    Understand? Words mean things, even when the meaning of those words change over time.

    GO3 Thu, 06/27/2024 - 11:31

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    Guise sex is for dummies like our parents who have nothing better to do than get married, have children and spend the rest of their lives paying for it. For people like us sex is a solitary practice like meditation or yoga which may sometimes be enjoyed with other people or not. So just have a wank and get back to the comradery and quit crying.

    GO3 Thu, 06/27/2024 - 13:59

    In reply to by GO3

    The third leg of the stool is aggro. You need comradery, wank and aggro. Some type of physical culture that actualizes the body will do to complete your praxis. Use ADIDAS as an affirmation. All Day I Dream About Sports!

    anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 11:35

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    11:02
    your ahistorical definition of jargon is the only appropriate definition!

    got it.

    lumpy (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 11:44

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    i think they make an interesting point, if someone wants to "reclaim" the word incel from the greasy little kiwifarms psycho cybergoblins and their creepy power fantasies from their disappointed mom's garage... that would be an uphill battle!

    best of luck to ya!

    anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 12:19

    In reply to by lumpy (not verified)

    sure, of course. always a challenge to buck t he stereotype popularized by mass media, and so on.

    my only point is that not being able to find a date/sex can be hard enough, lumping those folks in with people who are assholes seems like adding injury to injury.

    lumpy (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 12:33

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    fair point! although i wouldn't characterize the incel stuff as a stereotype, it's a deeply reactionary political movement of people who happen to also have emotional problems stemming from the very normal issues you're talking about.

    that's the thing about reactionary political cults, they target people with real problems and feed them bullshit answers.

    i guess this is a all-thumbs-are-fingers but not-all-fingers-are-thumbs ... type of thing?

    anon (not verified) Fri, 06/28/2024 - 11:38

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    incel is a useful name for a tendency of people who are in a particular politcal group at least partly BECAUSE they are not having social connections or sex or feeling desired and so on.
    but the actual not-having-sex specific thing is not the relevant piece when we're calling people names, maybe.

    anon (not verified) Fri, 06/28/2024 - 17:32

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    As such, it's a shitty ableist tendency to be dismissing people as InCels in itself. As if non-cels cannot full assholes and POS as well... It's kinda like equating not scoring well enough in life with being a bad egg worthy of what is really more social **segregation**. Just coz they're less socially-skilled, have low self-esteem...

    Where do you think mass-shooters come from?

    CACHEMASTER (not verified) Sat, 06/29/2024 - 00:28

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    Submitted by anon (not verified) on Fri, 06/28/2024 - 21:12

    Bees niceses to and acceptings of incels who hateses the nasty womenses or you will *checks notes* maAake mass shooters! Golum golum!

    anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 14:07

    In reply to by alex (not verified)

    Well not with your institutionalized framing they're not! Word definitions, like sexual intercourse, are difficult enough without so-called anarchists bullying me over it.

    Tristram (not verified) Fri, 06/28/2024 - 03:47

    In reply to by alex (not verified)

    What an absurd category to even contemplate, is it progress to reproduce, is rejection an indication of failure and sinfulness oh pious wanton liberal scoundrel?!
    If only my father had been involuntarily celibate and had not been lured into the unfortunate reproduction ab ovo with my witless mother 9 months before my birth, this sordid planet would not be straining under the loathsome burden of hungry scoundrels scampering in service to the factories of fertile multi-wived billiobillionaires!

    anon (not verified) Fri, 06/28/2024 - 09:16

    In reply to by Tristram (not verified)

    I'm thinking of Elon when I read that last line. Could he be deemed an "InCel"? No, quite the diametrical opposite... a successful model of manhood for all the fuckbois out there with their cowboy win-lose analysis of them social relationship!

    Tristram (not verified) Fri, 06/28/2024 - 15:12

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    Aye, Musk is like " Oh yeah bruhs, I can conquer Mars, the Roman God of War. how big is my dick? " The ultimate advertisement for these bone-headed cowboys, though ironically the soul that drives this obsession is tiny, cos power, Napolean complexities. Rather, at the other end of the spectrum, my member, though sufficiently active in my hands, has no wealth to advertise itself, and hides itself away, neglected, as was my father's, 'cept for one glorious day per month, with my scurvinous mother nine months before my birth!

    L (not verified) Wed, 06/26/2024 - 17:54

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    This one time after we narrowly escaped the kettle on K street I accidentally "Taco-Bell-shat" all over a comrade's lap. I was literally crying and apologizing and he was screaming about the car because it was borrowed from the guys in Profane Existence. After a huge freakout we noticed some Proud Boys headed in our direction so we quickly pulled it together and sped past while throwing out shit covered t-shirts and underwear out the window smacking at least two of them in their faces and chests speckling their limp DToM flag too! After a quick wash-up at a Georgetown Starbucks we finished fucking in the parking lot and headed straight to Punk Rock Karaoke.
    I suppose the moral of the story is to not eat Taco Bell before a battle.

    anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 10:02

    In reply to by L (not verified)

    It figures that in a subculture like this one we get an exhaustively detailed account of someone shitting in their pants. This should earn its author a lifetime free pass to an anarchist bookfair.

    L (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 18:35

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    Can't you read? I did not shit IN my pants I shat on my partner's lap. Both our pants were pulled down until we used them to clean up the shit. Make fun all you want but winning the battle was the goal and we certainly did that.

    anon (not verified) Fri, 06/28/2024 - 09:43

    In reply to by L (not verified)

    Ok so this was a sex report. After a cascade of dumb comments about the ontology of InCel. But it contained scat material that I do not find very palatable except for the notion that Proud Boys took eventually took the shit. Now i want *better* sex reports.

    Tristram (not verified) Wed, 06/26/2024 - 17:03

    In reply to by GO3

    Yeah that sounds like alot of fun, breathing some spontaneous joy rather than formal structured consumerist entertainments into the squalid existent that most putrid cities languish in. There is a state of voluntary exclusion determined by wealth in these concrete cesspools, and ironically in fact it is the poverty stricken and deficent individuals such as myself who act in the moment, snatching free food from supermarket shelves and consuming them on the spot, thus circumverting the legal perimeter of theft by exiting. Sexual gratification wherever it offers itself within this legal loophole is also possible. This tendency of mine no doubt was instilled into my core spirit ab ovo on that fateful night, by my father, 9 months before my birth.

    GO3 Thu, 06/27/2024 - 14:04

    In reply to by Tristram (not verified)

    It sounds like you have a pretty good life system. I used to do a bit of stealing when I was short on resources and it can be a thrill. I also got caught a few times which blows but I still got love for the streets. Oi!

    Tristram (not verified) Fri, 06/28/2024 - 20:37

    In reply to by GO3

    The most humble exotic and elongated delight , the banana, is at the top of the list for being the fastest and most pleasurable to consume and carrying the most nutrients aswell. My dexterous father taught me to consume them whole without chewing, and they go down well with a nip of lubricant. My father was proud in that he had also trained my hungry mother likewise to swallow whole, leaving many peels in her wake. He whispered one drunken night that the local vicar was an expert also and was very welcome at the local monastery, were many politicians also partied before the unholy seperation of church from State after the civil war saw the resignation of many holy and chaste monks and their relocation into the sordid redlight districts of industrial towns to educate and save the frustrated sailors who frequented these squalid avenues of disrepute!

    Tristram (not verified) Sat, 06/29/2024 - 06:58

    In reply to by Tristram (not verified)

    The most scoundrelous of these frustrated sailor/pirates very much resembled the modern womanless, childrenless, mother and fatherless hordes which roam the tarred concrete crass wildernesses, despising order and daintiness, their oceanic consciousness is as wild as typhoons if it were unleashed upon the concrete and steel cesspool, no? Stateless, despised by the prudish self-righteous merchants/clergy caste and my father. Oooh, if only he had spent a wild exotic night with a wench of rebellious spirit then 9 months later I would have a different ab ovo, I would not be this miserable obedient hollow and loathsome fool!

    anon (not verified) Tue, 06/25/2024 - 18:07

    In reply to by anon (not verified)

    Ageism on AnarchistNewsDotOrg??? Didn't the Boomers whom run this website oppose such things??

    "Radical this, radical that... what is radical anymore!? Can't tell coz I'm a college kid and Free Palestine!"

    You mom's sweet ass is pretty radical. She's with me right now and says to tell you that you are her biggest regret.

    SirEinzige Tue, 06/25/2024 - 22:08

    And I have to say looking at her current pinned tweet/video and browsing a bit of the timeline there are at least some things I can agree with due to my own anti-identitarian position. Someone better would be Clementine Morrigan who is also anti-identitarian(and cancel culture) but pro-queer.

    From a post-left perspective some of this should not be controversial and certainly not fascistic(lol).

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