William C. Anderson Author and independent writer William C. Anderson interviews veteran organizer and former Black Panther and political prisoner Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin on the current political crisis, fascism and rising relevance of Black anarchism. We also urge you to generously contribute towards a fundraising campaign organized by William to support Lorenzo and his partner…
Category: Anarchism
Speaking of Anarchism, Racism and Black Liberation
Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin May 3, 2015 Originally titled “Anarchism and Racism,” this editorial was written in the early 1990s around the creation of a new publication focused on Black autonomist politics. This is the first issue of the Journal of Anarchy and the Black Revolution, and although I do not think it will be the…
The Black Anarchism Reader
The Black Anarchism Reader In the expansive terrain of anarchist history, few events loom as large as the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Countless books, films, songs, pamphlets, buttons, t-shirts, and more are rightfully devoted to this transformative struggle for social revolution by Spanish workers and peasants. But digging through the mountain of available material, little…
Lucy Parsons: A Lifelong Anarchist
Described by the Chicago Police Department as “more dangerous than a thousand rioters” in the 1920s Lucy Parsons: A Lifelong Anarchist Lucy E. Parsons – The Anarchist Library
Black People Have a Right to Rebel
Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin July 29, 2005 Lorenzo Komboa Ervin’s analysis of the place of the 2001 Cincinnati riots within the history of US urban riots and the struggle against racism. A massive anti-cop rebellion has broken out in Cincinnati over the police shootings of 15 Black men, ranging in ages of 12-44 years old, all…
Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm
Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism Murray Bookchin This book asks-and tries to answer-several basic questions that affect all Leftists today. Will anarchism remain a revolutionary social movement or become a chic boutique lifestyle subculture? Will its primary goals be the complete transformation of a hierarchical, class, and irrational society into a libertarian communist one? Or…
The Necessity Defense
Anthony Rogers-Wright You can’t build long-term power by letting white supremacists, nor the government, harm and kill people with impunity. “We can no longer even try to suggest that we can negotiate with white supremacy and fascism.” While appearing on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now, the good and brilliant scholar/thought leader Dr. Cornell West did not mince words, “We would…
Celebrating Rosa Luxemburg
Sally Campbell A remarkable figure amid a revolutionary ferment, Rosa Luxemburg lit the way for generations to come. Sally Campbell recalls her legacy, and we reprint Luxemburg’s final article, written the day before she died in January 1919. Rosa Luxemburg is, without a doubt, one of the most important revolutionaries to emerge from that tumultuous…
South Africa: Building Black Working Class Counter-Power Against State, Capital and National Oppression
ZACF Interview with Warren McGregor of the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF),[1] South Africa What is anarchism? Who really rules South Africa? Should we form a “workers party”? How does anarchism address racial and national oppression? How can we build working class counter-power? What is the state of the left? How do we link fights…
How “The State and Revolution” Changed History
Brian Becker A barricade during The Paris Commune, 1871. Anyone who aspires to be a real communist or to understand the theory of modern communism must study Lenin’s pamphlet The State and Revolution. Lenin was able to nearly finish this monumental contribution to Marxism and revolution while on the run, living underground and hiding from…
Burning Down the American Plantation: An Interview With the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement
Colin Jenkins The following is an interview with members of the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement (RAM), conducted over the course of a month between July and August of 2017. We discuss their formation, vision and goals for the future, and what they are doing to spark a reawakening of revolutionary politics grounded in black liberation, anarchism,…
An Introduction to the Affinity Group
By Plain Words From 1890’s Spain to present day Bloomington, anarchists of varying stripes organize ourselves and take action together in what’s called an “affinity group.” Central to anarchy is not only respect for autonomy, but the belief that without stifling systems of control, people are capable of creativity, beauty, and courage. Because it is…
