cross-posted from: https://quokk.au/c/transarchy/p/947365/tranarchism-transgender-embodiment-and-destabilization-of-the-state-by-elis-l-herman

Introduction

Submission to domination is enforced not solely, nor even most significantly, through blatant repression, but rather through subtle manipulations worked into the fabric of everyday social relationships. These manipulations — ingrained in the social fabric not because domination is everywhere and nowhere, but because the institutions of domination create rules, laws, mores and customs that enforce such manipulations — create a logic of submission, an often unconscious tendency to justify resignation and subservience in one’s everyday relations in the world. For this reason, it is necessary for those who are serious about developing an anarchist insurrectional project to confront this tendency wherever it appears — in their lives, their relationships and the ideas and practices of the struggles in which they participate. Such a confrontation is not a matter of therapy, which itself partakes of the logic of submission, but of defiant refusal. It requires a subversion of the existent, a development of different ways of relating to ourselves, each other, the world and our struggles, ways that clearly reflect our determination to refuse all domination and to reappropriate our lives here and now. I am talking here of a real revolution of everyday life as the necessary basis for a social revolution against this civilization founded on domination and exploitation. The following essays appeared in Willful Disobedience as the series “Against the Logic of Submission”. By no means do they exhaust the question, but I think they provide a basis for discussion as to how we can create ourselves, our relationships and our struggle as our own in defiance of all domination.

Foundations - Bullet Points

• Classless Society: Abolition of capitalism and the state, with resources and decision-making collectively managed in a libertarian socialist framework.

• Horizontalism: Rejection of hierarchical systems in favor of horizontal(i.e. non-hierarchical), self-managed structures without ruler positions, where power is distributed equally among everyone rather than concentrated at the top.

• Means & Ends Unity: Commitment to prefigurative politics, holding that the struggle for a classless self-managed society must be organized through the same horizontal and self-managed means it seeks to establish, rejecting systems that reproduce the very hierarchical power structures they seek to abolish.

• Mutual Aid: Reciprocal systems of support ensure universal access to essential goods, resources, and social wealth, managed collectively by communities. This also includes services like healthcare, education, and other vital services for the common benefit.

• Council System: Abolition of state top-down structures and establishment of horizontal council-based decision-making systems. Interests are voiced through direct voting by self-managed workers or residents of a region and recallable delegates are chosen to coordinate and communicate council decisions, holding no personal power.

• Federalism: Autonomous Communes / Districts / Regions join together with councils at higher and higher levels, using delegation, in order to manage increasingly complex matters, while keeping all power on the base level thus keeping decision-making horizontal.

• Freedom & Accountability: Upholding the freedom of individuals to make choices about their own lives, including unrestricted bodily autonomy and self-expression, free from coercion and harm while holding people accountable who infringe on others.

This piece argues that the idea of a big global revolution or somehow “saving the world” from climate collapse is basically a fantasy and that we should stop clinging to that and face reality instead.

It talks about how society is changing, how some communities might live freer lives outside of big power structures, and how we could work with what’s left rather than waiting for some fairy‑tale outcome. It’s bleak but real, and it makes you rethink what resistance and living with change could actually mean

This reading mixes historical stories of people resisting inside Nazi concentration camps with a look at anarcho‑nihilism, arguing that even in the bleakest situations people can still fight back instead of just giving up. It turns that history into a lens for thinking about how we live now and why resistance matters more than waiting for some big future victory.

Abstract

In recent years, the discussion about economic concepts different from both capitalism and central planning has gotten more interest, new ideas emerged, and old ideas were rediscovered. This paper presents a modern version of the economic concept of anarcho-communist planning, originating from the late 19th century. The proposed idea is based on the needs of the people while respecting the planetary boundaries. It rejects ideas like markets, work remuneration, and money or other universal units of account. This paper first discusses the shortcomings of markets, central planning, and previous post-capitalist economic approaches like Parecon and Commons-based organizing from an anarcho-communist perspective. Then, it explains the concepts, required structures, and tools supporting the proposed anarcho-communist mode of economic planning in detail.

_ Yillamin Episode On the killing of Abdifatah Ahmed by Victoria Police_

This interview talks about a local event that happened earlier in the year, but I found some of the conversation around how Australia's immigration policy favours pro-capitalist/middle-rich class peoples and the effect this has on local community rallies interesting and a new perspective.

Preface

“A Catechism of Anarchy” was originally published anonymously in 1902 as a booklet of the Social Science Club in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This edition was first published by the Alliance of the Libertarian Left in December 2011. The text is based upon the original edition, as preserved in the Labadie Collection in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The Social Science Club was a working-class Anarchist reading and discussion group established in Philadelphia by Voltairine de Cleyre, and other members of the Philadelphia social movement. The group met every Sunday evening and included prominent defenders of Individualist, Mutualist, and Communist Anarchism, as well as other members who were interested in Anarchistic principles but did not identify themselves as Anarchists. The Club sponsored lectures, held discussions, and published both new works and translations of classic texts from the Anarchist tradition.

The “Catechism” was published by the group as a whole without a signature; the Labadie Collection attributes the work to the Individualist anarchist speaker and activist Voltairine de Cleyre. But Candace Falk et al. (“Social Science,” in the Directory of Organizations, Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years) report an article from the Anarchist paper Free Society, in which the Danish-American anarchist Mary Hansen acknowledged that she had written the first draft. According to Hansen, the final essay was a project of the Club and was finished collectively by the membership, which included de Cleyre, Natasha Notkin, George Brown, Perle McLeod, and many others.

Special thanks are due to Brian Truncale of Chicago, Illinois, for bringing this booklet to our attention.

It's Spooky Season, learn how to exercise yourself of the spooks.

My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) – or to 'unconstitutional' Monarchy. I would arrest anybody who uses the word State (in any sense other than the inanimate realm of England and its inhabitants, a thing that has neither power, rights nor mind); and after a chance of recantation, execute them if they remained obstinate! If we could get back to personal names, it would do a lot of good. Government is an abstract noun meaning the an and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people. If people were in the habit of referring to 'King George's council, Winston and his gang', it would go a long way to clearing thought, and reducing the frightful landslide into Theyocracy. Anyway the proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity. And at least it is done only to a small group of men who know who their master is. The mediævals were only too right in taking nolo efiscopari as the best reasona man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers. And so on down the line. But, of course, the fatal weakness of all that – after all only the fatal weakness of all good natural things in a bad corrupt unnatural world – is that it works and has worked only when all the world is messing along in the same good old inefficient human way. The quarrelsome, conceited Greeks managed to pull it off against Xerxes; but the abominable chemists and engineers have put such a power into Xerxes' hands, and all ant-communities, that decent folk don't seem to have a chance. We are all trying to do the Alexander-touch – and, as history teaches, that orientalized Alexander and all his generals.The poor boob fancied (or liked people to fancy) he was the son of Dionysus, and died of drink. The Greece that was worth saving from Persia perished anyway; and became a kind of Vichy-Hellas, or Fighting-Hellas (which did not fight), talking about Hellenic honour and culture and thriving on the sale of the early equivalent of dirty postcards. But the special horror of the present world is that the whole damned thing is in one bag. There is nowhere to fly to. Even the unlucky little Samoyedes, I suspect, have tinned food and the village loudspeaker telling Stalin's bed-time stories about Democracy and the wicked Fascists who eat babies and steal sledge-dogs. There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as 'patriotism', may remain a habit! But it won't do any good, if it is not universal.

Well, cheers and all that to you dearest son. We were born in a dark age out of due time (for us). But there is this comfort: otherwise we should not know, or so much love, what we do love. I imagine the fish out of water is the only fish to have an inkling of water. Also we have still smalls words to use. 'I will not bow before the Iron Crown, nor cast my own small golden sceptre down.' Have at the Ores, with winged words, war-adders, biting darts – but make sure of the mark, before shooting.

Article discussing alternatives to the current policing system. I think this is super important because people often (rightfully) get hung up on what we would do as a society to prevent crime, especially violent crime.

This one of Emma Goldman's essay from 1911 explores the what,why, how, and who of political violence. It feels relevant to share in the current climate.

TO ANALYZE the psychology of political violence is not only extremely difficult, but also very dangerous. If such acts are treated with understanding, one is immediately accused of eulogizing them. If, on the other hand, human sympathy is expressed with the Attentäter, one risks being considered a possible accomplice. Yet it is only intelligence and sympathy that can bring us closer to the source of human suffering, and teach us the ultimate way out of it.

This primer pamphlet can help you help people build up local community power.

A short read, looking at how we continue to frame the past and a 'simple life' with outdated notions on societal accomplishment.

This is a short one page read, showcasing a few example scenarios showing how you might already follow anarchist theory and values.

I've not actually read this, so I can't provide a review but I do have a physical copy sitting in my 'read one day' pile so it must be good.