Anarchist Essays

In this essay, Frankie Hines argues that an anarchist literary theory requires engaging with the anarchist critique of representation and considering possibilities for non-representational literary modes. Rather than looking for representations of reality, he argues anarchist literature should instead be read for the political effects it produces; that is, as a form of direct action. Frankie Hines received his PhD in English Literature from the University of Westminster in 2021, submitting a thesis entitled Evading Representation: The Literature of Contemporary U.S. Anarchism. He is the author of  "‘A movement that renovates people, as well as buildings’: squatting and neodomestic space in Seth Tobocman’s War in the Neighborhood”, published in Textual Practice in 2021. 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, Dorian Wallace discusses the use of music as a source of emancipatory inspiration, revolutionary practice, and transformational communal healing. He addresses the interconnections between music therapy, political music, and liberation psychology as the first step toward deeper exploration and discourse. Dorian Wallace is a composer, pianist, music therapist, and educator renowned for his stylistic versatility, improvisational skill, relentless confrontation against unjust social struggles, and the exploration of the complex and nuanced philosophical nature of transformation. In addition to a successful solo career, he regularly collaborates with artists such as Bonita Oliver, John Sanborn, Paul Pinto, Pamela Z, Charlotte Mundy, Frank London, and Nicholas Finch. 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, Janet Biehl discusses her new graphic memoir, Their Blood Got Mixed: Revolutionary Rojava and the War on ISIS, an exploration of the Rojava revolution as of the spring of 2019. She gives an overview of the revolution and the many and varied people she interviewed, explains how she came to write and illustrate the book, and offers her thoughts on the meaning of this remarkable experiment.  Janet Biehl is an independent editor, author, artist, and translator. Her previous publications are (as author) Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin (Oxford University Press, 2015), and (as translator) Michel Knapp et al., Revolution in Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women's Liberation in Syrian Kurdistan (Pluto, 2016). The independent film that Janet refers to, called Road to Rojava, will appear in 2023.  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, Elizabeth Vasileva discusses what kind of ethics are compatible with anarchist principles and makes the case for joyful, relational ways of being together. Elizabeth Vasileva is a lecturer at the Free University of Brighton. Her PhD is available to download from your usual choice of legal-grey-zone book repository. Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, click here. You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more here. Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Mark Bray discusses propaganda by the deed and the roles of human rights and 'terrorism' in the anarchist-led transnational campaigns against the "revival of the Inquisition" in Spain at the turn of the twentieth century.  Mark Bray is a historian of human rights, political violence, and radicalism in Modern Europe at Rutgers University. Bray's most recent publications are The Anarchist Inquisition: Assassins, Activists, and Martyrs in Spain and France (Cornell UP) and Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook (Melville House). 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

In this essay, Alice Béja discusses how Emma Goldman and other anarchists "Americanized" anarchism in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century, using national tropes and references to counter government repression while maintaining their internationalist beliefs. The essay is based on the article "Dreaming (Un)American Dreams"; Anarchists and the Struggle to Define Americanism" (Journal for the Study of Radicalism, vol. 13, Number 1, Spring 2019). Alice Béja is Associate Professor in American Studies at the Lille Institute of Political Science (Sciences Po Lille) and a researcher at CERAPS-CNRS. Her most recent publications are "Left-Wing Radicalism in the United States: A Foreign Creed?" (Transatlantica journal of American studies) and "Emma Goldman" (in J-N Ducange, R. Keucheyan, S. Roza, eds, Histoire globale des socialismes, XIXè-XXIè siècles, Presses Universitaires de France, 2021). 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

In this essay, Chantelle Gray talks about algorithmic governance - a new art of governing and government that treats individuals as data and the social world as a problem of big data sets - and the effects this is having on politics. Drawing on Tiqqun's The Cybernetic Hypothesis (2020), she thinks about anarchist responses to one of the most pressing issues of our time, namely how to prefigure social consistency in such a way that it produces conditions counter to algorithmic governmentality. Chantelle Gray is an Associate Professor in Philosophy. Her most recent publications are "Fabulation in a Time of Algorithmic Ecology: Making the Future Possible" (with Aragorn Eloff) in Technology, Urban Space and the Networked Community (edited by Saswat Samay Das and Ananya Roy Pratihar) and Anarchism after Deleuze and Guattari: Fabulating Futures. 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

In this essay, Michael A. Denner explores anarchism’s aesthetic attitude towards reality: What does anarchism "look like" in art? Using examples drawn from texts by two Russian thinkers, Leo Tolstoy and Viktor Shklovsky, Denner tries to answer the question:  Why is art so important to the politics of anarchism? Michael Denner is devourer of universes at Stetson University, DeLand Florida (that's the USA... not far from Disney!) His most recent research is in film studies (What do cowboys eat?). He makes boots and raises bees. 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

In this essay, Anthony Ince explores how a state-centric understanding of the world, how it fits together, and our place in it, limits both popular and academic ideas of what forms of societal organisation are possible or desirable. Taking the geographical concept of territory as an example, the essay considers what could be done to reimagine the space of our world, to undermine the hegemonic grip of the state and imagine alternatives that operate against and beyond it. Anthony Ince is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at Cardiff University. His research cuts across geography and political/social theory through an interest in how grassroots forms of collective power interact with large-scale social processes, including recent publications on anti-fascist spatial strategy and neighbourhood-scale legacies of urban riots. 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

In this essay, Eric Laursen discusses the roots of the climate change crisis in the forces driving the modern State. He lays out an analysis that locates overreliance on fossil fuels in the State's partnership with capital and their mutual focus on promoting rapid economic growth at any cost.  Eric Laursen is an independent scholar, journalist, and longtime anarchist activist, based in Massachusetts. He is the author, most recently, of The Operating System: An Anarchist Theory of the State (AK Press, 2021), and The Duty to Stand Aside: Nineteen Eighty-Four and the Wartime Quarrel of George Orwell and Alex Comfort (AK Press, 2018). 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