Anarchist Essays

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
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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).
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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).
Artwork by Sam G.
 

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).
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Essay #101: Jesse Spafford, ‘The Anarchist Case Against Private Property’

In this essay, Jesse Spafford argues that plausible libertarian premises support the classical anarchist conclusion that no one has any moral property rights over land or resources. Drawing on the argument advanced in Chapter 4 of his book Social Anarchism and the Rejection of Moral Tyranny, he contends that neither states nor would-be property owners can impose obligations on others without consent.
Jesse Spafford is a Lecturer in philosophy at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, where he researches moral debates between libertarians, socialists, and anarchists. He is the author of Social Anarchism and the Rejection of Moral Tyranny (available open access on the Cambridge University Press website) and various other papers on anarchism including "Social Anarchism and the Rejection of Private Property" and "An Anarchist Interpretation of Marx's 'Ability to Needs' Principle." A complete list of his research and public-facing work is available on his website.
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 #100: Ruth Kinna, ‘Mutual Aid: What It Is and What It Is Not’

This essay is adapted from Jim Donaghey's excellent collection, Fight for a New Normal? Anarchism and Mutual Aid in the Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis . It discusses some of the applications of 'mutual aid' in government agencies and its articulation in nineteenth century anarchist thought to flesh out a grassroots, transformative conception.
Ruth Kinna is a member of the Anarchism Research Group at Loughborough University and the author of The Government of No One.
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 #99: Keith Jacobs, ‘The Writings of Colin Ward and the Legacy of Anarchism for Housing Studies’

In this essay Keith Jacobs considers the relevance of Colin Ward’s work for addressing contemporary housing challenges. It is claimed that Ward’s writings on housing offer both a trenchant critique of managerially inspired policies and a set of political interventions that merit consideration.
Keith Jacobs is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania. His two most recent publications are: ‘’Historical sensibility’ and its relevance for contemporary housing studies’ 10.4337/9781800375970.00010 and ‘Political economy perspectives and their relevance for contemporary housing studies’ (coauthored with R. Atkinson and D. Warr) 10.1080/02673037.2024.2359411.
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 #98: Rhiannon Firth, ‘Afterword to Fight for a New Normal: Anarchism and Mutual Aid in the Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis’

In this essay, Rhiannon provides an Afterword summarizing some of the key themes in a recently published volume of collected essays edited by Jim Donaghey titled Fight for a New Normal? Anarchism and Mutual Aid in the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis. Rhiannon also playfully problematizes the title of the book, arguing that rather than fighting for a new normal, anarchists should be fighting against normativity itself.
Rhiannon Firth is Lecturer in Sociology of Education at the Institute of Education, UCL Faculty of Education and Society. Rhiannon's most recent publications are Disaster Anarchy and Entangled Futurities. 
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.

Essay #97: Matt Grimes, ‘I’m not someone who calls themselves an anarchist, I am an anarchist’: The Continuing Significance of Anarchism in the Latter Lives of Ex-Adherents of British Anarcho-Punk’

In this essay, Matt Grimes discusses the continuing significance of anarchism among a group of ageing anarcho-punks, who first engaged with anarchist ideologies and politics in their adolescence in the 1970s and 1980s. Drawing on the relationship between ageing, identity, memory and nostalgia, Matt explores how this group of ageing anarcho-punks have negotiated their anarchist beliefs, alongside the responsibilities often associated with adulthood and ageing.
Dr Matt Grimes is Course Director BA (Hons) Music Business and Senior Lecturer in Music Industries and Radio. Matt’s most recent publications are; Way, L. and Grimes, M. (2024) (eds) Punk, Ageing and Time. London: Palgrave MacMillan and Grimes, M. (2024) "I'm not someone who calls himself an anarchist, I am an anarchist". Anarcho-punk praxis and the continuing ideological significance of  British anarcho-punk in the later lives of its ex-adherents’. In: Laura Way and  Matt Grimes (eds) Punk, Ageing and Time. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
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.
 
 

Essay #96: Dana Williams, ‘Concerning Anarchist Sociology: Working Within and Against Discipline’

In this essay, Dana Williams discusses the many complicated connections between sociology and anarchism. In particular, Williams explores what could be meant by "anarchist-sociology" and the potential for a social science anarchist studies.
Dana Williams is Professor of Sociology at California State University, Chico in California (USA). Williams's most recent publications include "The Uncivil Sphere and Anti-authoritarian Movements: Problems of Status Quo Violence, Internationalist Militancy, and Non-state Civil Society" (published in Theory in Action) and "Anarchist and Anarchistic Anti-Systemic Movements in World-Systems Perspective: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Non-State Spaces" (with Spencer Louis Potiker and Jake Alimahomed-Wilson, in Journal of World-Systems Research), and a forthcoming book about radical trust with Pluto Press.
Williams can be found on social media at: https://scholar.social/web/@dmw  and  https://bsky.app/profile/dmwilliams.bsky.social
Full-text articles available here: https://hcommons.org/members/dmwilliams/  and  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dana-Williams-4
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.