Anarchist Essays

Bonus: Call for Papers: Anarchism & Punk

Anarchism and Punk - Call for Chapters We are inviting chapter submissions for an edited volume on the interrelationships between anarchism and punk. Send 250-300 abstracts to Will Boisseau (will.boisseau@hotmail.com), Caroline Kaltefleiter (Caroline.Kaltefleiter@cortland.edu), and Jim Donaghey (j.donaghey@qub.ac.uk) by 20 January 2021. More details here: https://jimdonaghey.noblogs.org/anarc...
Timeline: 23 November 2020 – Call for Chapters disseminated. 20 January 2021 – Please send 250-300 word abstracts to the editors by (to the email addresses given above). 21 June 2021 – Subsequently invited chapters, of between 5,000 and 8,000 words, to be written with a general readership in mind. Winter 2021/22 – After review and revisions process, the book is under agreement to be published with a well respected radical (and punk friendly) publisher. Details to be announced. Some thought-provoking questions, to which you might respond or take as a point of departure: - What lessons can other milieus of the anarchist movement draw from punk’s longevity and impressive global spread?- Is the relationship between punk and anarchism substantially distinct in ‘other’ world contexts (especially in the ‘Global South’)? - Can punk’s success in ‘taking back the means of cultural production’ be replicated in other realms of production (whether social or material)? - Is punk well-placed to respond to, or resist, or escape, the neoliberal capitalist world? Or is punk just another harbinger of neoliberalism’s seemingly irresistible advance? - How do punk scenes respond to life under socialist/communist states and governments? Or to life under fascist/authoritarian/totalitarian states and governments? - What intervention can punk culture (or punk counter-culture) make in the ‘culture wars’? - In our era of perpetual crisis, what role can/do punk scenes play in providing focal points for resistance and mutual aid? - How has punk responded to radical ideologies other than anarchism (Marxism, autonomism, socialism, feminism, environmentalism)? - How has punk interacted with specific social movements (Black Lives Matter, antifa, Extinction Rebellion, trans rights, anti-globalisation, Occupy, disability rights, Food Not Bombs, LGBT, squatting)? - How does punk challenge, or fail to challenge, the patriarchy? Does queer punk look different in diverse global contexts? - What does the prevalence of veganism in punk culture tell us about tensions between individual consumer choices and activism? How do other punk behaviours and consumption practices relate to anarchism? - In what ways does the prevalence of anti-theism in punk reflect anarchist anti-theism and anti-clericalism? - How does the relationship between punk and anarchism compare with other anarchist-associated music cultures or art movements? (Hip-hop, rap, dance, rave, folk, anti-folk, metal, jazz, kraut rock, ska, avant-garde, rebetiko, corridos, no wave, Irish rebel music, ad nauseam!). Please feel free to expand beyond these questions in your contributions.

Essay #3: James Gifford, 'Rue Sainte-Ursule'

In this work of creative non-fiction, James Gifford explores how narrative form can engage with anarchism by looking for evanescent moments of freedom between reactionary nostalgia for the past and prefigurative utopianism for the future.
James is Professor of Literature at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Director of FDU Press. His work is on anarchism, literary modernism, and popular culture, and his recent books are A Modernist Fantasy: Anarchism, Modernism, & the Radical Fantastic and Personal Modernisms: Anarchist Networks & the Later Avant-Gardes. For his latest article see 'Goblin Modernism: Modernism, Anarchism, and the Radical Fantastic'
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

Essay #2: Ole Birk Laursen, 'Decolonising Anarchism: M.P.T. Acharya, Anticolonialism, and Anarchism, 1922-1954

In this essay, Ole Birk Laursen looks at the Indian anarchist M.P.T. Acharya (1887-1954), his activities within the international anarchist movement, and his attempt to bring anarchism into India's independence struggle and the post-colonial era in order to think more closely about decolonising anarchism.
Ole is a Research Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden University (https://www.iias.asia/profile/ole-birk-laursen). His research focuses on anticolonialism, anarchism, and socialism, and he is the editor of M.P.T. Acharya, We Are Anarchists (AK Press, 2019) and Lay Down Your Arms (OOOA! Publishing, 2019). For a recent publication on Acharya, see: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13688790.2020.1751914.
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
 

Essay #1: Lisa Matthews, 'Solidarity, the Sea, and Subverting State Power'

In this essay, Lisa Matthews looks at examples of refugee and migrant solidarity, the importance of that solidarity not being limited to nation-states and citizenship, and the sea as a site of potential subversion and opportunity.
Lisa is a Coordinator at Right to Remain. Working with grassroots asylum and migrant groups in the UK, Right to Remain help people navigate the UK asylum and immigration system and campaign for positive change in the asylum and immigration system. For more information, visit www.righttoremain.org.uk
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