Jeff Shantz

In Green Syndicalism, Shantz issues a call to action to the environmental movement and labor activists, particularly rank and file workers, to join forces in a common struggle to protect the environment from capitalism, corporate greed, and the extraction of resources. He argues for a major transformation to address the jobs versus the environment rhetoric that divides these two groups along lines of race and class. Combining practical initiatives and theoretical perspectives, Shantz offers an approach that brings together radical ecology and revolutionary unionism in a promising vision of green politics.

An Alternative Red/green Vision

Green Syndicalism

Ruth Kinna

Luis A. Fernandez

Anthony J. Nocella

Mark Seis

A Historical Dismantling of Punishment and Domination

Classic Writings in Anarchist Criminology

As capitalist societies in the twenty-first century move from crisis to crisis, oppositional movements in the global North have been somewhat stymied, confronted with the pressing need to develop organizational infrastructures that might prepare the ground for a real, and durable, alternative. More and more, the need to develop shared infrastructural resources - what Shantz terms "infrastructures of resistance" - becomes apparent. Ecological disaster, economic crisis, political austerity, and mass-produced fear and phobia all require organizational preparation - the common building of real world alternatives.There is, as necessary as ever, a need to think through what we, as non-elites, exploited, and oppressed, want and how we might get it. There is an urgency to pursue constructive approaches to meet common needs. For many, the constructive vision and practice for meeting social needs (individual and collective) is expressed as commonism - an aspiration of mutual aid, sharing, and common good or common wealth collectively determined. The term commonsim is a useful way to discuss the goals and aspirations of oppositional movements, because it returns to social struggle the emphasis on commonality - a common wealth - that has been lost in the histories of previous movements that subsumed the commons within mechanisms of state control, regulation, and accounting - namely communism.In the current context, commonism, and the desire for commons, speaks to collective expressions against enclosure, now instituted as privatization, in various realms. While the central feature of capitalism is the commodity - a collectively produced good controlled for sale by private entities claiming ownership - the central feature of post-capitalist societies is the commons. These counter-forces have always been in conflict throughout the history of capitalism's imposition. And this conflict has been engaged in the various spheres of human life, as mentioned above. Commonism, (and commonist struggles), is expressed in intersections of sites of human activity and sustenance: ecological, social, and ideational. Examples of ecological commonism include conservation efforts, indigenous land reclamations and re-occupations (and blockades of development), and community gardens, to name only a few. Social commons include childcare networks, food and housing shares, factory occupations, and solidarity economics (including but not limited to community cooperatives). Ideational commons include creative commons, opens source software, and data liberation (such as Anonymous and Wikileaks). This becomes procreative or constructive. It provides a spreading base for eco-social development beyond state capitalist control. It also moves movements from momentary spectacles or defensive stances or reactive "fightbacks." Commonism affirms and asserts different ways of doing things, of living, of interacting.This book engages various commonist tendencies. It examines communism, including overlooked or forgotten tendencies. It provides an exploration of primitive accumulation and mutual aid as elements of struggle. Attention is given to constructive aspects of commonist politics from self-valorization against capital to gift economies against the market. It finally speaks to the need of movements to build infrastructures of resistance that sustain struggles for the commons. Written by a longtime activist/scholar, this is a work that will be of interest to community organizers and activists as well as students of social movements, social change, and radical politics. It will be taken up by people directly involved in specific community movements as well as students in a range of disciplines (including sociology, politics, geography, anthropology, cultural studies, and social policy). There is no book that offers such a concise, readable discussion of the issues in the current context, with particular emphasis on anarchist intersections with communism.

Mutual Aid Beyond Communism

Commonist Tendencies

A compelling discussion of anarchist political practice, providing rich examples of politics grounded in everyday resistance, offers important insights into real world attempts to radically transform social relations in the here and now of everyday life. Written by a longtime activist and sociologist, Active Anarchy provides one of the most significant reflections on contemporary radicalism in theory and practice. It documents an important movement in its complexity, moving beyond the misconceptions that mar both popular and academic portrayals of anarchism.

Political Practice in Contemporary Movements

Active Anarchy

This is an age of crisis: economic, political, environmental, and social. Yet the nature of contemporary crisis is often misunderstood. Crisis, rather than being accidental or episodic - as is too often assumed - has been a regular feature of state practice in the neoliberal austerity regimes of contemporary capitalism. In this timely work Jeff Shantz gives special attention to the particular manufactured crises associated with austerity regimes and conditions of precarity within contemporary capitalism, and how Crisis States differ from other forms of state practice.Crisis is a powerful weapon of states and capital in the pursuit of accumulation, exploitation, and control. Engaging insights from anarchism and autonomous Marxism, Shantz lays bare the real nature and character of crisis as political and social pursuits of state and capital under precarious capitalism.Attention is also given to social resistance under crisis state conditions. Contemporary capitalism renders the oppressed and exploited precarious at the same time as opportunities are opened to render the system itself precarious. Understanding Crisis States and precarious capitalism is crucial in considering prospects for resistance.

Crisis States: Governance, Resistance & Precarious Capitalism

Jordon Tomblin

Few activities have captured the contemporary popular imagination as hacking and online activism, from Anonymous and beyond. Few political ideas have gained more notoriety recently than anarchism. Yet both remain misunderstood and much maligned. /Cyber Disobedience/ provides the most engaging and detailed analysis of online civil disobedience and anarchism today.

Re://Presenting Online Anarchy

Cyber Disobedience

It is widely understood that the burdens of ecological destruction are borne disproportionately by working-class and poor communities, both through illness and disease caused by pollutants and through the depletion of natu­ral resources from which they make a living. Yet, consistently, the voices of the working class are the most marginalized, excluded, and silenced discussions about how to address ecological concerns and to protect the environment from future destruction. Both mainstream environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, and the radical environmental­ists, such as EarthFirst!, are reluctant to engage with working class and poor communities, often viewing blue-collar workers as responsible for the destruction these groups are trying to prevent. In Green Syndicalism, Shantz issues a call to action to the environ­mental movement and labor activists, those who represent the work­ing class, to join forces in a common struggle to protect the environment from capitalism, corporate greed, and the extraction of resources. Shantz argues for a major transformation to address the "jobs versus the environ­ment" rhetoric that divides these two groups along lines of race and class. Combining practical initiatives and theoretical perspectives, Shantz offers an approach that brings together radical ecology and revolutionary unionism in a promising vision of green politics. Green syndicalists work as coalitions to increase community-based economics and productive decision making that encourages the participation of all stakeholders in the process. Drawing, in part, on his own experiences growing up in a working-class family and organizing within radical ecology and labor movements, Shantz charts a path that accesses the commonalities between these groups in an effort to take on the forces that destroy the environment, exploit people, and harm their communities.

An Alternative Red/Green Vision

This volume examines historical and contemporary engagements of anarchism and literary production. Anarchists have used literary production to express opposition to values and relations characterizing advanced capitalist (and socialist) societies while also expressing key aspects of the alternative values and institutions proposed within anarchism. Among favoured themes are anarchist critiques of corporatization, prisons and patriarchal relations as well as explorations of developing anarchist perspectives on revolution, ecology, polysexuality and mutual aid. A key component of anarchist perspectives is the belief that means and ends must correspond. Thus in anarchist literature as in anarchist politics, a radical approach to form is as important as content. Anarchist literature joins other critical approaches to creative production in attempting to break down divisions between readers and writer, audience and artist, encouraging all to become active participants in the creative process.

Anarchism and the Literary Imagination

Against All Authority

The specter of anarchism is haunting statist and capitalist culture and politics in the 21st century. Anarchism—the idea that people can organize their lives on the basis of justice and equality free from political and economic rulers—has provided inspiration for a variety of contemporary social movements. Yet anarchism remains a misunderstood and misrepresented philosophy. A Creative Passion, edited by a longtime anarchist activist and scholar, offers important insights into anarchist cultural practices and worldviews. The classical anarchist Mikhail Bakunin famously proclaimed that the passion for destruction is also a creative passion. Anarchists over the decades have sought to destroy the tyrannical, authoritarian, exploitative, and oppressive aspects of statist and capitalist societies and culture, while creating alternatives based on solidarity, justice, care, and mutual aid. This innovative work provides exciting perspectives on current movements and ideas that seek a world free from authoritarian domination. It will be a welcome resource for students, faculty, artists, and community organizers alike. Chapters examine anarchism and dada, drama and anarchy, eco-anarchism and critiques of capitalist civilization, DIY and anarcho-punk assaults on corporate culture industries, and Wole Soyinka’s anarchism.

Anarchism and Culture

A Creative Passion

Anthony J. Nocella II

Anarchists were among the earliest modern thinkers to offer a systemic critique of criminal justice and among the first to directly criticize academic criminology while formulating a critical criminology. They identified the sources of social problems in social structures and relations of inequality and recognized that the institutions preferred by mainstream criminologists as would-be solutions to social problems were actually the causes or enablers of those harms in the first place. This volume collects critical writings on criminology from radicals and thinkers like William Godwin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Mikahil Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin, Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman, and many others.

Seeds Beneath the Snow; the Sociological Anarchy of Paul Goodman, Colin Ward, and James C. Scott

Smposium on Anarchy

Anarchy. The word alone conjures strong emotional responses. Anarchism is one of the most important, if maligned, radical social movements. In the 21st century, anarchist politics have enjoyed a significant revival, offering a positive vision of social change and an alternative to the injustice and inequality associated with states and corporate dominance. Yet anarchism remains misunderstood and misrepresented in mass media and government accounts that associate the term with chaos and disorder. Despite the negative portrayals anarchism, in fact, has always been a movement of intense creativity. More than a political movement, anarchism has, for over a century, made important contributions to cultural developments, especially in literature and art. Often overlooked are the vital creative expressions of anarchism. This lively volume featuring works by innovative scholars presents the compelling potency of anarchist literature through distinct voices. Anarchism has greatly influenced literary production and provided inspiration for a diversity of writers and literary movements. Edited by a longtime anarchist theorist, this exciting collection of engaging works highlights the rich articulations of anarchism and literary creations. It places anarchism at the center of analysis and criticism. Authors examined include Octavia Butler, John Fowles, James Joyce, Ursula LeGuin, Eugene O’Neill, B. Traven, and Oscar Wilde, among others. The collection shows the richness of anarchist movements in politics and culture. Specters of Anarchy examines critically the generally overlooked intersections, engagements, debates and controversies between literature and criticism and anarchist theories and movements, historically and in the present period. Synthesizing literary criticism with the theory and practice of anarchism, this book offers a re-reading of important literary and political works. Anarchist politics is a major, and growing, contemporary movement, yet the lack of informed analysis has meant that the actual perspectives, desires and visions of this movement remain obscured. Lost in recent sensationalist accounts are the creative and constructive practices undertaken daily by anarchist organizers imagining a world free from violence, oppression and exploitation. An examination of some of these constructive anarchist visions, which provide examples of politics grounded in everyday resistance, offers insights into real world attempts to radically transform social relations in the here and now of everyday life.

Literature and the Anarchist Imagination

Specters of Anarchy

It is widely accepted that documents on Ottoman architects are rare and that little is known about the architectural practice in the Ottoman world. A group of texts that have appeared between sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, however, form an exception to this general assumption. While these texts have been cited and referred to in diverse previous studies on Ottoman architecture, they have not been the topic of a major interpretative approach before. A Study of Ottoman Narratives on Architecture: Text, Context and Hermeneutics is the first interpretive and comparative research monograph to feature these texts as its main theme. This is the first translation of these works that contextualizes and interprets their importance in English.The first text is a group of five documents that date back to the sixteenth century. They comprise memoirs and building lists written in prose and verse which belonged to prominent Ottoman architect Sinan. The second text was written under the influence of the first group of documents and is in a similar format. It comprises a memoir dedicated to Sedefkar Mehmed A?a, who worked as the chief imperial architect in the seventeenth century, and also provides information on architectural terms and makes comparisons between architecture and music. The third text is different from the first two: it is a monograph about the Selimiye Mosque written in prose in the eighteenth century by Dayezade Mustafa, who was a complete outsider to architecture. While the three texts have quite different historical and thematic contexts their point in common is their rendering of architecture through narratives. From a hermeneutical perspective, the book compares narratives of the texts with contemporary historiography on Ottoman architecture.

Theory and Practice in Anarchist Movements

Living Anarchy

Contemporary border struggles. Racial profiling. Race and imperialism : migration and border control in the Canadian state. Consuming fears : neo-liberal in/securities, cannibalization and psychopolitics. "border panic" and the bounds of racial identity. "Self" and "the other" : a journey of mutural recognition. No one is illegal : resistance and borders

Representation, Repression, Resistance

Racism and Borders

José Brendan Macdonald

Capitalism as a global system barely allows the needs of the majority of the world's population to be met. Whether from an industrialized country such as the US or from South Africa, the need for an alternative can be felt all over the world. It is clear nowadays that, due to the non-democratic nature and inadequacies of capitalism, another system must take its place. Such a process has already begun through the cooperative movement, which this book examines along with other initiatives. Featuring essays by international scholars and activists from various spheres of the anti-capitalist left, the work features many examples from the north and the south, to cover both the historically-advanced and late capitalist economies. It discusses such initiatives as participatory economics, the Mondragon experience, worker cooperatives in Europe and Latin America, solidarity economy in South Africa, and more. Written in an accessible manner, Beyond Capitalism will be an invaluable resource for any student of social movements and political thought and for anyone looking for alternative to today's ongoing systemic crises.

Building Democratic Alternatives for Today and the Future

Beyond Capitalism

Constructive Anarchy, the result of more than a decade of direct study within a variety of anarchist projects, provides the most wide-ranging and detailed analysis of current anarchist endeavours. The compelling discussions of anarchism and union organising, anti-poverty work and immigrant and refugee defence represent truly groundbreaking undertakings from a rising scholar of contemporary anarchism. Organised to illustrate the development of the diversity of anarchist strategies and tactics over time, the book begins with a discussion of alternative media projects before turning attention to anarchist involvement in broader community-based movements. Case studies include a discussion of anarchists and rank-and-file workplace organising, anarchist anti-borders struggles and "No One Is Illegal" movements in defence of immigrants and refugees since 9/11, and anarchist free schools and community centres. Jeff Shantz's analysis demonstrates serious and grounded practices rooted in anarchist organising: practices that may draw on previous traditions and practices but also innovate and experiment. The varied selection of case studies allows the author to compare groups that are geared primarily towards anarchist and radical subcultures with anarchist involvement in more diverse community-based coalitions, an approach that is otherwise lacking in the literature on contemporary anarchism.

Jeff Shantz

Books

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