Upcoming Events
Much of the ideology of ‘National Liberation’ is ugly to us. It tends to crush rebellious individuals back into the role of soldiers and suffocate the expansion of the social war of the exploited against everything which oppresses them: a war which can never be between armies. Usually, there is the more or less disguised will to establish a new state, which we know will always mean handing the keys of the prison to new guards, exchanging one set of torturers for another. Recent history provides enough examples of masked militants opportunistically trading in their AK47 for the judge’s robes, politicians suit, boss’s pocket-watch, and policeman’s baton.
But at least equally as ugly is the ‘safety’ of the peace administered in the high walls of the European power – which affords us westerners, fattened on the consumables extracted and produced by ‘post-revolutionary’ cheap labour, a sneering cynicism and complacency as regards the struggles which still come from outside and below. Among the remaining ‘revolutionary groups’ in Europe there is often an absurd process of arranging these struggles from a distance into ‘revolutionary’ or ‘reactionary’ camps, as part of what is no more than an intellectual exercise, with no skin in the game at all.
Anarchy is intolerant of both these alternatives. With all the stakes, to criticise and attack power however it changes to remain the same, to strengthen the self-organising tension anywhere it emerges in the heat of struggle, to play our own game of subversion without hesitation: these are guiding stars. But the route out of the blackmails set by power to that radical and creative outside cannot be entrusted to spontaneous revelation. By then it is always too late. This is why the question demands serious analysis and vigorous discussion among comrades in the present tense.
Past Events
Springtime of Revolt, Death to the State!
Two days of subversive memory and celebration on the anniversary of the Paris Commune
7PM SUNDAY 17th MARCH (part 1)
Black Threads #6 – Louise Michel and Irreperable Action
Following on from the Black Threads discussion series, we are again drawing on the heritage of anarchism to illuminate elements of the struggle for freedom today. On this occasion we would like to discuss, not a specific text, but rather, around the anniversary, an insurrectional moment: those spring days in 1871.
Remembered as much by comrades in the past because of the massacres with which the state and its servants punished the rebellion, as for its acts and perspectives of freedom, today we think it is important to consider the Commune as an insurgent utopia, propulsive for comrades who shared its historical epoch, but very distant from us in both qualitative and quantitive terms.
Nevertheless, embedded in the writings of some comrades like Louise Michel, there are the holes and tunnels they bored in the world of power to the radical outside; the commune’s promise, anarchy, which once breached successfully cut all ties with the old world. It meant no going back. The necessity of thinking and discussing these perspectives today, so as to chart our own routes out of here, in ideas and in fact, are obvious to us. On what used to be an often-commemorated anniversary, we would like to do away with myth and discuss instead, in the past as in the present, the armed dream of freedom.
7PM TUESDAY 19th MARCH (part 2)
Music and Poetry Benefit Soirée
“In this somber life, cradling sad days, some refrains come back again and again. They catch at your emotions and rip you apart at the same time. […] The dream emerges from the scents of spring.” (The Red Virgin: Memoirs of Louise Michel)
To complete our commemoration of the Commune, marking its first days, let’s gather in celebration. A short recital of anarchist songs and poetry (including by Pietro Gori), canapes, cocktails and mocktails. Benefit for the struggle.
Black Threads #5
In this series of discussions we will go back into the heritage of anarchism to look at specific written contributions to the theory and practice of attack, informal organisation and permanent revolt. Each week some extracts will be shared beforehand which can be read to prepare for the next discussion or not. Each discussion will start with a presentation of the book.
“We are living in times of ‘crisis’ and this often leads comrades down the blind alley of pragmatism and compromise, verging on political realism […] Galleani repudiates in total any struggle for partial gains or reforms, ‘the ballast of the bourgeousie’ that the latter throws out under the violent pressure of the masses […] ‘Instead of the mere passive and polite resistance so fervently recommended by the socialists, the anarchists prefer boycott, sabotage, and, for the sake of the struggle itself, immediate attempts at partial expropriation, individual rebellion and insurrection.'”
(Jean Weir, Introduction to The End of Anarchism?)
The End of Anarchism
Ch. 6 – Workers’ Organization
Ch. 7 – Propaganda of the Deed
The media, the schools, the judges, the cops, politicians, surveillance, technology, work. All have their role to play in repression.
Repression is nothing but the interwoven attempts of all authorities to stupify thought, silence ideas, to freeze action, to weaken courage and to justify obedience. These efforts are always necessary to hold together the ranks.
When repression strikes in any form, as well as aiming at rebellion, or just exclusion from the world desired by power, it can also have the tragic effect of domesticating others who feel affinity with the acts, people or ideas put under the searchlights of the state. The drumbeat of court dates, investigations, punishments- risks turning a possibly expansive struggle, outside and against all power, into a protest against only a specific form of repression, or even worse, a bargaining of innocence. This is a real betrayal of subversive charge which is the only thing the state ever really wants to repress anyway.
A comrade from the context of struggle in and around Bristol over the last twelve years will give a presentation outlining their perspective on the moments of joy and freedom in the fight against capital and the state, but also describe moments of capitulation and retreat and what may have led to this. Particular attention will be paid to the Kill the Bill riot of 2021 for which there was a big solidarity movement- many people have been sent to prison.
We want to discuss what solidarity means to us without preconceptions,starting from the questions which have emerged from Bristol over this period. We want to share ideas and in doing so, to sharpen them.
In this series of discussions we will go back into the heritage of anarchism to look at specific written contributions to the theory and practice of attack, informal organisation and permanent revolt. Each week some extracts will be shared beforehand which can be read to prepare for the next discussion or not. Each discussion will start with a presentation of the book.
“There is no doubt but that power is latently in you; there is little doubt it can be developed; there is no doubt the authorities know this, and fear it, and are ready to exert as much force as is necessary to repress any signs of its development. And this is the explanation of Emma Goldman’s imprisonment. The authorities do not fear you as you are, they only fear what you may become. The dangerous thing was “the voice crying in the wilderness” fortelling the power which was to come after it”
(Voltairine de Cleyre, In Defence of Emma Goldmann and the Right of Expropriation)
Preparedness, The Road to Universal Slaughter PDF:
https://lib.anarhija.net/library/emma-goldman-preparedness-the-road-to-u…
Victims of Morality PDF:
https://usa.anarchistlibraries.net/library/emma-goldman-victims-of-moral…
In this series of discussions we will go back into the heritage of anarchism to look at specific written contributions to the theory and practice of attack, informal organisation and permanent revolt. Each week some extracts will be shared beforehand which can be read to prepare for the next discussion or not. Each discussion will start with a short presentation of the book.
“The oppressed – and these are Malatesta’s exact words- precisely because he always finds himself in a state of legitimate self-defence, is morally entitled to rebel without repression having been taken to the extreme and making the situation in which he is living intolerable. This is an important point. It sheds considerable light on the rebel’s decision to attack the enemy that represses him. It is not essential for him to find himself drowning or to be under fire. So, what is required? The answer is obvious: he must make the consciousness of the situation he finds himself in his own, that is, he must acquire the ability to read between the ideological lines that power puts into act in order to swindle us, even before it oppresses or suppresses us.”
Alfredo M. Bonanno
Errico Malatesta and Revolutionary Violence
PDFs of the Malatesta articles:
https://lib.anarhija.net/library/errico-malatesta-gradualism.pdf
https://lib.anarhija.net/library/errico-malatesta-on-syndicalism.pdf
https://lib.anarhija.net/library/errico-malatesta-the-anarchist-revolution.pdf
In this series of discussions we will go back into the heritage of anarchism to look at specific written contributions to the theory and practice of attack, informal organisation and permanent revolt. Each week some extracts will be shared beforehand which can be read to prepare for the next discussion or not. Each discussion will start with a short presentation of the book.
“Government by science is becoming as impossible as that of divine right, wealth, or brute force. All powers are henceforth to be submitted to pitiless criticism.
If it is allowable to cite any one name from those of the revolutionists who have taken part in this immense work of renovation, there is not one that may be singled out with more justice than that of Mikhail Bakunin.”
Carlo Cafiero, Elisée Reclus. Preface to God and the State (First French Edition)
PDF of God and the State:
https://lib.anarhija.net/library/michail-bakunin-god-and-the-state
PDF of the Unique and its Property:
https://lib.anarhija.net/library/max-stirner-the-unique-and-its-property.pdf
Sections and Page Numbers:
The Free
“The bourgeoisie professes a morality that is most closely connected with its essence.” Page 102
to
“The state is founded on the—slavery of labor. If labor becomes free, the state is lost” Page 105
The Owner
“Egoism has no intention of sacrificing anything, of giving up anything; it simply
decides…” Page 212
to
“ …the egoist behaves as a property owner.” Page 213
on the “free press”
Page 232-233
“…If we want to rid the world of many sorts of bondage…” Page 250
to
“…because the association doesn’t possess you, you possess it or make it of use to you.” Page 255
“Revolution and insurrection should not be looked upon as synonymous…” Page 258
to
“…the insurrectionist strives to become constitutionless.” Page 259
an unrelenting struggle, an insurrectional dream.
Social war and repression of anarchists and subversives in the territory dominated by the Chilean state
“Continuing to take paths of rupture is therefore a small victory, showing that, even if the State shows us its worst face, it cannot bend us. We think that solidarity with those affected by repression must necessarily be transgressive and offensive, free from any pessimistic and victimist discourse. The use of all our creativity, limited only by our anarchist principles, is fundamental…”
Monica Caballero and Francisco Solar, 2017.
Chilean society is a modern democratic one. The industrial ravaging of indigenous land is conducted for the benefit of American, British and European corporations and is managed by endless ‘anti-terrorist’ operations. The administrators of society, from the bosses of production and mass-media to the scientists and the military; from the priests and politicians to the judges and police, have all undergone a costume-change since the years of fascist dictatorship.
Over this time the territory has been the subject of economic booms and collapses, times of social peace and democratic recuperation as well as some of the most intense social rebellions in recent times that have not been short of explosive examples throughout the world.
But one constant has remained an implacable thorn in the side of the ambitions of power as it has changed in order to remain exactly the same. The minority, informal, anarchist movement which counts many comrades inside the dungeons of the Chilean state, through their intransigent words and deeds has been a point of reference in some moments in the struggles of the exploited in that territory where limits have been burst, as well as for many amongst those who still hold onto the outrageous desire for freedom, all over the planet.
We are presenting a two-part event at the Touchpaper Anarchist Library.
Sunday 1st October, 7pm.
The Social War in the Territory Dominated by the Chilean State.
We will attempt to discuss and bring alive together, the analyses, critiques and actions which have been communicated from the Chilean context to the world through anarchist publications we have in the library. Through this encounter we hope to set a context by which we can better grasp what is at stake in the current phases of repression that the following discussion will take as its starting point, as well as to consider why these reflections are necessary in our situation.
Tuesday 3rd October 7pm.
International Solidarity.
A comrade from Chile will give a presentation on the anti-repression struggle conducted within and without the walls in solidarity with anarchist and subversive prisoners. A new anti-info zine ‘Complicidad e Sedicion’, on the same subject will also be presented.
Tuesday 8th August 2023: Celebrating the 1st Birthday of Touchpaper Anarchist Library!
- Open as usual from 4pm
- + Special Zine Launch from 7pm!
Public Discussion: 7pm Sunday 18th June
CARDIFF RIOTS
“If power wants to extinguish revolt, it’s up to us to spread the flames”
Two teenagers, Harvey Evans and Kyrees Sullivan, are killed trying to escape the cops in Ely, Cardiff…
…Those same cops move in to try to grasp control even of the ground where those boys have just fallen.
People emerge into the streets. Nine hours of fighting. Burnt vehicles, torches of freedom.
Up until that day police were arrogant in their power to enter territory – stripping, interrogating, kidnapping at will. Then suddenly they face their nightmare. A vengeance undaunted by all the weapons, machinery, threats and torments used to suppress it. None of these are a match for wounded dignity and simple courage.
Now that the fires have been put out, the media have done their work: on the one hand, censorship, and on the other all the disgusting lies that can be marshaled to discredit the validity and importance of this night of rebellion. Arrests have already begun (twenty so far), many of children no older than 15. The state attempts, yet again, to erase any sign that what took place was a rebellion – an obvious fact with irrepressible consequences.
Anyone who decides to go on the offensive are brothers and sisters. Their generous and open invitation to put an end to excuses and immediately revolt is not to be taken lightly.
Here in London things are no different. How many have died at the mercy of the state and its enforcers? How many times, till we raise our heads up against an unbearable existence of meaningless lives? It is a moral and material necessity. Right now.
Public Discussion (for the unmanageable!)
Tuesday 21st February
Against Ecology
The catastrophe we face is not revealed in the predictions of a scientific caste, nor in the mysticism of rhythms of nature which we have never known in the duration of our artificial lives.
The catastrophe is the daily dose of poisoning which we drink voluntarily: the world of management, entertainment, democracy, technological progress and merchandise. Its power source is human drudgery and submission, turbo-charged by fossil fuels or no-less ruthlessly exploited ‘sustainable’ resources. This is the polluted wasteland which takes survival for as long as possible as its miserable horizon – at an individual level as much as at the level of the species.
In the past, struggles against the most polluting developments have been orientated by ecology but now it is acting as a brake on their potential.
The fumes of ideology can be more suffocating than greenhouse gasses. If we are not careful, we will be led directly into the embrace of a transformed authority – eagerly drawing on the moral fury of the green movement, and all too happy to continue to govern on a necessarily planetary scale.
We need fresh ideas and action to break with the stifling atmosphere of the moment and to arm the struggles of the near future. We need to move beyond ecology, and enter the dimension of a revolt without excuses, without demands and without return to normality.
Public Discussion
Tuesday 10th January 7pm
Animal Liberation and Insurrection
This society is nothing but a row of tightly monitored cages. Non-human animals have been, and continue to be, at the sharp-end of the scientific-industrial system. Locked up, experimented on, artificialised and domesticated – and yet their revolt continues, in escapes, in violent reactions against their capture and on their jailors. Against this daily misery, what does an insurrection which finds connection with the revolt of non-human animals look like? What wild horizons of freedom lie at the point where smashed cages meet severed networks of social control, and sabotage and expropriation spreading through the temples of work and consumption?
Public talk and discussion:
Tuesday 18th of October, 6PM
Fire to Colonisation: anarchist contributions to anti-colonial struggle in ‘Canada’
A talk and discussion with comrades from ‘Canada’ about the indigenous land-struggles and anarchist participation in them.
Public Discussion:
Tuesday 13th September, 6PM
Against 5G and the world that needs it!
An anti-authoritarian discussion on digital control and the struggle for freedom.