Anarchist Essays

In this essay, Gloria Truly Estrelita provides an overview of the history of anarchism in Indonesia. Co-authored with Jim Donaghey, Sarah Andrieu and Gabriel Facal, this essay discusses the early roots of anarchist movements in the archipelago in the context of anti-colonialism and nationalism in the late 1800s and early 1900s; details the abolition of leftist movements, including anarchism, in the 1960s; traces the re-emergence of anarchism as part of protest and counter-cultural movements in the 1990s; highlights the shifting forms of state repression in the 2010s; and points to the importance of anarchist critique for the contemporary Indonesian context. Gloria Truly Estrelita is a PhD candidate in the Department of History and Civilisation at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, France. Member of Centre Asie du Sud-Est (CASE), she is also one of the founders of AlterSEA, Observatory of Political Alternatives in Southeast Asia (GT Estrelita's most recent publication is an article on GIS Asie: 'Can progressive thinking exist in contemporary Indonesia?' For the English version: 0:46 – 19:03 For the Bahasa Indonesian version: 19:09-37:32 For text versions of these essays, see the Anarchist Studies blog: English - https://anarchiststudies.noblogs.org/article-a-brief-history-of-anarchism-in-indonesia/ Bahasa Indonesian - https://anarchiststudies.noblogs.org/article-sejarah-singkat-anarkisme-di-indonesia/ This episode of ‘Anarchist Essays’ was supported by a grant from The Lipman-Miliband Trust. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Jim Donaghey reads the introductory chapter to the newly published book Smash The System! Punk Anarchism as a Culture of Resistance, edited by Jim Donaghey, Will Boisseau and Caroline Kaltefleiter, and published by Active Distribution in December 2022. The volume includes 18 chapters, offering a snapshot of anarchist punk as a culture of resistance across the globe. In these diverse and internationalist contexts we witness struggles against racism and colonialism in South Africa, resistance to neo-liberalism and state oppression in Latin America, resistance to police brutality and capitalism in Western, Central and Southeast Europe, struggles for equality and against patriarchy in the US, and anarchist resistance against injustice and authoritarianism in Asia.  Smash The System! is the first volume in the Anarchism and Punk Book Project series. A written version of this essay is available on the Anarchist Studies blog. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Maia Ramnath discusses the concept of the racial capitalocene as a framework for linking anticolonialism and climate justice.  As part of a critical dialogue across time with earlier movements, in this case the Progressive Writers Association in South Asia, this framework offers a global context in which to place specific liberation struggles that's appropriate to the present day, as anti-fascism and Afro-Asian solidarity did for the PWA at key periods in the 20th century. Maia Ramnath is an independent scholar based in New York City. Occupations include writing, research, teaching, tour guiding, organizing, performing and choreographing (dance and aerial). Maia’s most recent publications are Art for Life: Conversations with the Progressive Writers Moment: on Pens, Swords, and Internationalism, from Antifascism to Afro-Asian Solidarity; "The Other Aryan Supremacy," in the collection No Pasaran!: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis, and "Reawakening Asia Jaag Utha," in the forthcoming Lateral forum "Toward Third Worlding." This episode of ‘Anarchist Essays’ was supported by a grant from The Lipman-Miliband Trust. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

This special issue of the Anarchist Essays podcast features a discussion between JoNina Ervin, Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, and William C. Anderson. It originally appeared on the Black Autonomy Podcast. In October 2021, Pluto published the definitive edition of Anarchism and the Black Revolution by Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin. The book first connected Black radical thought to anarchist theory in 1979, and now amidst a rising tide of Black political organizing, this foundational classic has been republished with a wealth of original material, including forewords by William C. Anderson and Joy James. This episode of Black Autonomy Podcast is brought to you in collaboration with the Pluto Press podcast 'Radicals in Conversation,' in which JoNina Ervin hosts a discussion between Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin and William C. Anderson about Black anarchism across the generations. Ervin and Anderson discuss the reasons for the continued relevance and increasing popularity of Black anarchism today, what an ‘ungovernable’ radical movement might look like, and the contradictions inherent to single-issue and state-orientated political projects from the left. They also discuss Black nationalism, and put Anderson's book The Nation on No Map in conversation with Anarchism and the Black Revolution. This episode of ‘Anarchist Essays’ was supported by a grant from The Lipman-Miliband Trust Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Hannah Kass discusses how the state, capitalism, and property are interconnected systems, working together to produce peasant dispossession and hunger. To challenge these systems and their social relationships, she proposes food anarchy: a new pathway for the food sovereignty movement to wield in their struggle to challenge the current food regime.  Hannah Kass is a joint Ph.D student in the Department of Geography and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hannah's most recent publication is the journal article from which this essay is adapted: ‘Food anarchy and the State monopoly on hunger’, published in The Journal of Peasant Studies. Kass, H. 2022. Food anarchy and the State monopoly on hunger. The Journal of Peasant Studies. DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2022.2101099 This episode of ‘Anarchist Essays’ was supported by a grant from The Lipman-Miliband Trust. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Jennifer Cole discusses how Peter Kropotkin's early writings on mutualism sit alongside Charles Darwin's writings on human evolution and underpin current interests within evolutionary anthropology on how human psychology, altruism and morality developed. Kropotkin is largely ignored within biological and evolutionary academia, however, even though his approach to human development offer a more cooperative and caring blueprint for society. Jennifer Cole, Lecturer in Global and Planetary Health at Royal Holloway University of London’s most recent publications include ‘Solidarity not charity’ and Manifesto for Mutual Aid.  Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Laura Galián delves into the history of anarchism in the south of the Mediterranean from a historical and historiographical perspective by reviewing the anti-authoritarian geographies of the southern shore of the Mediterranean and reassessing the postcolonial status of these emancipatory projects. For the English version: 0.40-14:10 For the Spanish version: 14.19-29.12 Laura Galián is an Assistant Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). Laura has recently published the book Colonialism, Transnationalism and Anarchism in the South of the Mediterranean (2020). Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Sophie Scott-Brown explores the life and times of anarchist autobiography. From Proudhon to Kropotkin, Goldman to Read, many anarchists have written their life stories and provided generations of readers an intimate glimpse of the radical life, but what else motivates this sort of memory making? Moreover, how has it changed over time and what can it tell us about the relationship between anarchist ideas and anarchist identities? Sophie Scott-Brown is a lecturer in Philosophy at UEA. Her latest book is Colin Ward and the Art of Everyday Anarchy (Routledge, 2022). Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Nathaniel Andrews explores both the role of children within anarchist activism, and anarchist understandings of childhood, focusing specifically on the Argentinian city of Rosario, in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Nathaniel Andrews is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute. His most recent publication is a co-authored article with Professor Richard Cleminson, titled ‘Introduction: New Directions in Spanish Anarchist Studies’, which forms part of a co-edited special issue of the Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies . He is currently working on his first monograph: a study of prefigurative politics in the Spanish and Argentinian anarchist movements, between 1890 and 1930. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Sarah Gelbard reflects on the messy relationship between punk, anarchy, and anarchism and ways it can be conceived of as identity, politics, scene, performance, and/or practice. For punks in academia and academics studying punk, how do we position ourselves in relation to the work, to power, and with our comrades? Sarah Gelbard is a Ph.D. candidate in urban planning at McGill University. Her research speaks to the ways marginalized and alternative urban groups negotiate with, subvert, and refuse the formal city-building project of mainstream placemaking and planning. She is a co-organizer of the Spaces of Struggle Radical Planning conferences and research group. Sarah is also the lead singer and bassist in the punk band Bad Missionary.  Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.