Anarchist Essays

Essay #111: Livia K. Stone, ‘Autogestion: Correcting the History of Self-Management’

In this essay, Livia K. Stone discusses the origins of the concept of autogestion/self-management, generally associated with anarcho-syndicalism. Often described as emerging from Yugoslavia in the 1950s, Stone argues that the origins of the term actually lie in the Algerian independence movement in the 1960s and represented a defining shift in twentieth century social movements.
Livia K. Stone is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Illinois State University. She is the author of Atenco Lives!: Filmmaking and Popular Struggle in Mexico (2019), and "Autogestion: Correcting the History of Self-Management" (2024)
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Bluesky @anarchismresgroup.bsky.social
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Essay #110: Juan Carlos Mijangos Noh, ‘Creating an Anarchist Community: How can Students from a Neoliberal University Participate?’

In this essay, Juan Carlos Mijangos Noh reflects on an experience of creating a microcosm of an anarchist community in a Yucatecan Maya Village in Mexico. The experience involved women students trained in a neoliberal university who, despite that, were able to perform in an anarchistic fashion.
Juan Carlos Mijangos Noh is a full professor at the Autonomous University of Yucatan, Mexico. His most recent publications are: Creating an Anarchist Community: How can Students from a Neoliberal University Participate?, published by Anarchist Studies (https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/anarchiststudies/vol-33-issue-2/); and The Canicab Charter: A Mayan Model for Data Governance, published by the International Council of Media Literacy (https://ic4ml.org/journal-article/the-canicab-charter-a-mayan-model-for-data-governance/).
A longer version of this article appeared in Anarchist Studies 33.2 (2025).
For a version of this podcast in Spanish, fast forward to 15.34
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Bluesky @anarchismresgroup.bsky.social
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).
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Essay #109: Jason Garner, ‘Updating Anarchism’

In this essay, Jason Garner, looks at the debate between anarchists in countries on both side of the Atlantic about the need, or not, to revise anarchist tactics in the light of the end of the postwar revolutionary wave in 1923. This is part of an overall project on “Reformism and Cooperation in interwar anarchism. National and transnational debates in a context of decline”.
Jason Garner, former lecturer and teacher in Contemporary and Argentine history though presently freelance historian relocatied to Europe. External member of Gesraiot, Grupo de Estudios sobre Representaciones y Acciones de las Izquierdas y Organizaciones de Trabajadores, IIDyPCa, Rio Negro National University (Argentina).
Recent publications:Goals and Means: anarchism, syndicalism and internationalism in the origins of the Federacion Anarquista Iberica, AK Press, 2016. ‘The Revue International Anarchiste’s World Survey (1924-1925) A transnational attempt at reappraising, revising, and reinvigorating the anarchist movement’, Journal for the Study of Radicalism, Spring 2023, Vol.27, no.1, 1-25 ‘“Too many cooperatives and too few cooperativists”: The Consumer Cooperative movement in Catalonia 1898-1939.’ Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies, July 2022‘Left to die – The fate of the Catalan Consumer Cooperative Movement during the Primer Franquismo (1939-1959’, European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire, April 2022 ‘A failure of Praxis? European revolutionary anarchism in revolutionary situations 1917-1923’. Left History. An interdisciplinary journal of historical inquiry and debate, (24) 1, 2021, 10-44.
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Bluesky @anarchismresgroup.bsky.social
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).
Artwork by Sam G.
 

Essay #108: Steve Emery & Dai O’Brien, ‘L.A. Motler: A Deaf Anarchist’

In this essay, Steve Emery and Dai O'Brien discuss the life and politics of a deaf anarchist communist, Leonard A. Motler. Steve and Dai explain his significance to both the anarchist movement in the UK as a visibly deaf signing person and to the deaf community as an openly anarchist radical. A longer version of this article appeared in Anarchist Studies 33:1 (2025). This episode is read by Isobel van Hagen.
Steve Emery is a freelance writer and researcher in the field of Deaf Studies and works as a project manager at the University of Surrey. His most recent publications are: O’Brien, D. and Emery, S. (2025). L.A. Motler: a Deaf Anarchist. Anarchist Studies 33(1) DOI:10.3898/AS.33.1.02X and Emery, S. D., and Iyer, S. (2024). Deaf Migrants in London in Kusters, AMJ, Moriarty, E, le Maire, A, Iyer, S & Emery, S (2024). Deaf Mobility Studies: Exploring International Networks, Tourism, and Migration. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press, 91-117. DOI:10.1111/jola.70013. <https://gallaudetupress.manifoldapp.org/projects/deaf-mobility-studies>Dai O'Brien is an Associate Professor in BSL and Deaf Studies at York St John University. His most recent publications are: Sauntson, H., Cunningham, C., Ennser-Kananen, J., & O'Brien, D. (2025). Language and Social Justice: An Introduction to Linguistic Activism. Routledge. and O’Brien, D. and Emery, S. (2025). L.A. Motler: a Deaf Anarchist. Anarchist Studies 33(1) DOI:10.3898/AS.33.1.02
Isobel van Hagen is a PhD candidate in politics and philosophy at Loughborough University. 

Essay #107: Alexandria H., Juan Verala Luz, & Charles W., ‘Survival of the Organized: Critical Reflections on Organizing and Mutual Aid’

In this essay, Alexandria H., Juan Verala Luz, and Charles W. draw distinctions and connections between two important aspects of social movements: organizing and mutual aid. They argue that practicing mutual aid inside organizing campaigns and the mass organizations that sustain them can prefigure the kinds of social relationships that will truly liberate us.
Full text of the article can be found at: https://www.blackrosefed.org/survival-organized-mutual-aid-2025/
Alexandria H., Juan Verala Luz, and Charles W. are members of Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra. You can read more about how they build popular power alongside their coworkers and neighbours at blackrosefed.org.
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Bluesky @anarchismresgroup.bsky.social
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).
Artwork by Sam G.

Essay #106: Josie Holland, ‘Utopian Desires of Queer Anarchism’

In this essay, Josie Holland breaks down key characteristics of queer anarchism and its connection to anarchist principles of prefiguration and revolutionary desire. They conclude with an invitation to develop a critical utopian impulse through anarchist practices more generally. 
Josie Holland is a doctoral student in the English Department at the University of California, Riverside. Their most recent publication is "Leading Towards the Queerest Insurrection: Queer Anarchism and Leadership Studies," available in The Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies. They also have forthcoming reviews in Extrapolation and Science Fiction Film and Television.
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Bluesky @anarchismresgroup.bsky.social
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).
Artwork by Sam G.
 

Essay #105: Javier Sethness Castro, ‘From Tolstoy’s Search for the Kingdom of God: Gender and Queer Anarchism’

In this reading from Tolstoy’s Search for the Kingdom of God: Gender and Queer Anarchism (2025), Javier Sethness Castro reflects on Leo Tolstoy and the Russo-Ukrainian War. While praising the relevance of Tolstoy’s anti-militarist principles in light of this ongoing conflict, the author also considers not only Tolstoy’s contradictions as a Russian chauvinist, but also the Putin regime’s utilization of his fame to legitimize its genocidal war.
Javier Sethness Castro is a primary-care provider, libertarian socialist, and author or editor of six books, including Queer Tolstoy: A Psychobiography (2023).
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Bluesky @anarchismresgroup.bsky.social
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).
Artwork by Sam G.

Essay #104: Theresa Warburton, ‘Other Worlds Here: Embracing Story as Place-Based Practice in Anarchist Social Movements’

In this essay, Theresa Warburton talks about the power of story for building a place-based method in anarchist organizing. Building on their own experiences and the works of Indigenous scholars, Warburton asks how anarchists can make space for the past, present, and future in the work we do together.
Theresa Warburton is an educator and organizer living in Washington State. Their most recent publications are Other Worlds Here: Honoring Indigenous Women's Writing in Contemporary Anarchist Movements and, with Elissa Washuta, Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers. She serves on the board of the Institute for Anarchist Studies and the editorial collective for Perspectives on Anarchist Theory.
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Bluesky @anarchismresgroup.bsky.social
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).
Artwork by Sam G.
 

Essay #103: Iain McIntyre & Owen Clayton, ‘Mysteries of a Hobo’s Life: T-Bone Slim and the Industrial Workers of the World’

This essay is based on the introductory chapter from a collection edited by Owen Clayton and Iain McIntyre entitled The Popular Wobbly: Selected Writings of T-Bone Slim (University of Minnesota Press, 2025).
Owen Clayton is a Senior Lecturer in English literature at the University of Lincoln in England and the author of Vagabonds, Tramps, and Hobos: The Literature and Culture of U.S. Transiency, 1890–1940 and Literature and Photography in Transition, 1850–1915.
Iain McIntyre is an honorary fellow with the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne, a researcher at social change website commonslibrary.org and author of Environmental Blockades: Obstructive Direct Action and the History of the Environmental Movement.
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Bluesky @anarchismresgroup.bsky.social
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).
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Essay #102: Graham McGeoch, ‘Anarchism, Orthodoxy, and Latin America’

In this essay, Graham McGeoch speaks about his research of Orthodox Christian influences on Anarchism in Latin America. A fuller version of the research was published in the edited volume, Orthodoxy and Anarchism: Contemporary Perspectives (ed Davor Dzalto, Rowman & Littlefield, 2024).
Dr Graham McGeoch teaches Theology & Religious Studies at Faculdade Unida de Vitoria, Brazil and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. His most recent publications include, Russian Émigré Theology and Latin American Liberation Theology (Volos, 2023), World Christianity and Ecological Theologies (eds. Raimundo Baretto, Graham McGeoch & Wanderley Pereira da Rosa, Fortress Press, 2024), Theology After Gaza (eds Mitri Raheb & Graham McGeoch, Cascade, 2025).
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Bluesky @anarchismresgroup.bsky.social
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).
Artwork by Sam G.