Anarchism

Saying that “humans” are responsible for ecological devastation is a continuation of colonial racism, and it is an insult to the peoples who have fought against obliteration to preserve their way of life and their relationship with their territory. It is also an insult to the many people who, despite growing up in a culture totally infused with the values of capitalism, have risked their lives and freedom to defend the land and halt destructive development projects. And it is an insult to the hundreds of millions who are subjected to extreme poverty or absolute precarity by the very same economic order that profits from ecocide, who have to worry about their personal survival and that of their family and community, and do not have the luxury of choosing between different job opportunities and consumer products based on how “ecological” they might be.

As Kathryn Yusoff argues in A Billion Black Anthropocenes, the framework of the Anthropocene is racist, and it also serves to obscure our view, to hide the actual system at the heart of the problem.95 People in the Global South—people dehumanized by Western slavery, colonialism, and racism—finally get included in the category “human,” just in time to share the blame for the devastation caused by a social system that has ravaged them far more than they have profited from it.

-- Peter Gelderloos

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/68689258

Link to free book

New crimethinc article just dropped

I posted this to Mastodon a while back, but I'm realizing I should probably drop this here too.

All this does is alienate anarcho-curious liberals.

Hey y'all! Here we are reading and discussing Section E.2 of AFAQ this week which is about what eco-anarchists propose instead of capitalism! You may notice we went back a few section this time, cuz we accidentally skipped this one, oops:)

Happy reading!

• Section E.2 : https://anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionE.html#sece2

There is also an EPUB version of AFAQ, courtesy of @irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com: here

If you'd like to join, please comment and we'll ping you next post.

Link to last week's read: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/68163491

PS. Feedback request: How did you find last week's reading pace? Fast/Slow/OK/etc.?

Before I start my little rant, I want to speak to the liberals in the wall. I am not, nor have I ever been, a sovcit. Anarchists and sovcits share a resentment for these documents, but that's where the resemblance ends.

I'm a prominent union organizer within my industry (tech) and was recently extended the offer to travel to California to represent my union at a conference next month. I love going to union conferences, so of course I accepted. That's when I remembered that my passport is expired by a couple years, and I further realized that I don't have a real id. So now I need to get a new passport.

I decided that I want a passport card along with my book, because a card would be easier to carry for this conference. This shit is expensive! $130 for renewal, $30 for the card, and $60 for the expedited processing. $220 total. I fucking hate that I need to register with the government to travel. I fucking hate that I need to surrender my privacy to this fascist regime. I fucking hate that my only option for fast travel is by plane. I fucking hate borders.

Given the discourse in some of the Rimu posts in the last week, I thought it may be a good idea to do a weekly book club, to align people on anarchist principles. The alignment may not be needed for already identifying individuals, but could be a good way to allow others/outsiders to gain an understanding of anarchism, what it looks like, and what it means to be an anarchist.

I believe you already have something along those lines with the "FAQ Reading Group", but this would be for more historical/established/grounding literature.

The envisioned implementation would be: each week there would be a discussion post for that section/chapter (of a relevant, freely available book/literature) and a statement about the next section/chapter set for discussion the following week.

Let me know what you think.

This is the video which made me become an anarchist. Watch this with someone you want to convert.

Abstract: This article reclaims mathematics from the measures of profit and control by first presenting an anarchist analysis of mathematics’ status quo societal uses and pedagogic activities. From this analysis, a vision for an anarchist math education is developed, as well as suggestions for how government school practitioners sympathetic to anarchism can insert this vision into their current work. Aspects to this vision include teacher autonomy, freedom from hierarchical curriculum structure and math class as a non-coercive, happy place. Finally, mathematics is argued to be essential knowledge for anarchistic society for three potentialities: in solving social and technological problems through application, as an analytic technology and for increasing individual happiness via the aesthetic dimension.

I am sympathetic to the bad reputation mathematics often endures. Some of society’s well-known uses of mathematics cloud our understanding of the knowledge and its place in a visionary, anarchist society; similarly, the status quo pedagogy of mathematics education might suggest that mathematical knowledge should be left out of an anarchist education. I describe this situation with a heavy heart, however, because I also happen to have passion for mathematics as a knowledge for myself to use and enjoy, and as something I can share with others. In this article, I argue that mathematics finds a home in anarchist education, and again that mathematical knowledge is not in conflict with anarchist society. To begin, I offer a handful of examples from such societal uses and status quo pedagogy that work against three commonly agreed on anarchist values: collectivism, fraternity, and freedom from social hierarchy. These representations will guide an understanding for what anarchist society and education are and are not. Next, the article discusses the role mathematics can play in anarchist education and finally society. Put another way, this article first presents an anarchist analysis of current mathematical behaviors, both pedagogic and otherwise, and then develops an anarchist mathematics.

Before I proceed with the connections between mathematics/mathematical behaviors and anarchism, I describe briefly the anarchist theory that informs this article. One definition describes anarchism as “a political theory which aims to create a society within which individuals freely cooperate together as equals” (McKay 2008, 19). In particular, I am highlighting three tenets related to this definition: collectivism, fraternity, and freedom. Collectivism denotes the curtailment of property rights, especially as they relate to ownership of capital. Fraternity describes an inclination for individuals to recognize the needs and desires of all other people, and accordingly to act in the spirit of mutual aid. Freedom indicates a lack of coercive actions by any person, group, or social institution on any one person, as well as individual autonomy within the boundaries of imposing on another’s freedom. I review these anarchist tenets when I describe an anarchist math education, but first I use them to expose problematic mathematical activities in society.

Referenced and related: A Mathematician’s Lament by Paul Lockhart (PDF)

I am refering to the old school non-violence by the way, not the modern non-resistance crap. What are your toughts?