As the “do-it-ourselves” uprisings and occupations that have swept across the globe from Egypt to United States are proving, self-organization is not only effective in the process of resistance but also the basis for new communities--and potentially, a wholly new world. The ethical practices that anarchists advocate are becoming powerful everyday experiences, with people self-managing everything from civic defense and trash collection to tent encampments and general assemblies. Indeed, the contours of the "occupy everything" movement could be viewed, in large part, as anarchism in action. Anarchism has always held up the ideal of a free society of free individuals–a world without hierarchy or domination. But in relation to both form and content, what exactly does this look like? Cindy’s talk, based on her book Anarchism and Its Aspirations (AK Press, 2010), will provide an accessible overview of an often-misunderstood political philosophy and living tradition, highlighting its principles, reconstructive vision, and prefigurative praxis.

Cindy is an Institute for Anarchist Studies board member, a co-organizer of the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference, and an active participant in Occupy Philly. She has long been involved in community organizing and anarchist collectives/projects, including the New World from Below convergence at the U.S. Social Forum, the “Hope from People not Presidents” and “Don’t Just (Not) Vote” efforts, Black Sheep Books collective in Vermont, and the anarchist summer school known as the Institute for Social Ecology. Currently, she’s also collaborating on another book, Paths toward Utopia: Explorations in Everyday Anarchism, with Erik Ruin (PM Press, 2012).

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Against the Grain recently ran a podcast exploring Anarchism in relation to the Occupy protests. Check it out here.

Anarchist principles inform much of what is happening at Occupy Wall Street and beyond. So what does anarchism, a rich tradition of political thought, mean? Martha Ackelsberg, Cindy Milstein, Tomas Moniz and Roger White discuss anarchist ideas and dynamics. Milstein also describes "anarchism in action" at Occupy Philly.

Andy Cornell, author of Oppose and Propose! Lessons from Movement for a New Society, the second book in the IAS's Anarchist Interventions series has embarked on a book tour to lead discussions on the book. Check out the dates below!

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Movement for a New Society, a radical pacifist organization active in the 1970s and 1980s, pioneered forms of consensus decision-making, communal living, direct action, and self-education now central to antiauthoritarian movements.

Yet members found their commitments to “live the revolution now” often alienated potential allies and distracted them from confronting their opponents, while their distrust of leadership and commitment to cumbersome group processes made it difficult to keep their analysis and strategy cutting-edge.

In this talk, followed by a discussion, Andrew Cornell will place Movement for a New Society in the broader history of U.S. anarchism and post-1960s radicalism, while offering an assessment of the strategies and conceptual tools it left to current movements.

Andrew Cornell is an educator, writer, and organizer living in Brooklyn, New York. His writing has appeared in periodicals such as Left Turn, LiP, and Perspectives on Anarchist Theory.

Spring 2011 Newsletter

Institute for Anarchist Studies

Announcing Our Grant Awards for Winter 2011

As always, the Institute for Anarchist Studies (IAS) board is pleased to announce our latest grant awards; as always, it was also a tough decision, involving many hours of dialogue and debate to narrow it down to our four funded works. The board would like to publicly thank everyone who applied, and of course heartily congratulate Nadia Shevchenko, Asaf Shalev and Clayton Hartmann, Eric Stanley, and Thomas on their IAS grant awards. We hope to publish their finished pieces in the online and/or print versions of our journal, Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, in the near future.

Our next deadline for grant proposals is September 1st, 2011. For more information on IAS grants, see the FAQ at www.anarchist-studies.org/applyfaq. For the time being, applications can only be sent via e-mail. To request an application, please e-mail info@anarchist-studies.org .

And now, here’s a glimpse at the four projects:

The second title in the IAS's Anarchist Interventions book series, Oppose and Propose!: Lessons from Movement for a New Society by Andy Cornell, is out now on AK Press!

Where do the strategies, tactics, and lifestyles of contemporary activists come from? Movement for a New Society, a radical pacifist organization active in the 1970s and 1980s, pioneered forms of consensus decision making, communal living, direct action, and self-education now central to antiauthoritarian movements. Brimming with analysis, interviews, and archival documents, Oppose and Propose!: Lessons from Movement for a New Society recovers a missing link in recent radical history, while drawing out crucial lessons on leadership, movement building, counterculture, and prefigurative politics.

Andrew Cornell is an educator, writer, and organizer living in Brooklyn, New York. His writing has appeared in the collections Letters from Young Activists, The University against Itself and The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism.

Dear IAS friends:

In the midst of the circus of witchcraft, sexual liaisons, allegations of socialism, barter medicine, and human brains in mice that is electoral politics, and throughout the ongoing horrors visited on people and ecosystems by capitalism and war, the IAS has persevered in its small way to encourage a broader and deeper debate. We see people every day engaging in projects that give life and meaning to the possibility of another world. Through book tours, support for radical authors, conferences, and collaboration in the work of other organizations, we connect in solidarity with people who are forging ties of real and free community.

In this issue of the IAS newsletter, you will learn about the four new additions to our board, updates from past grantees, and the next issue of Perspectives on Anarchist Theory. We hope to see many of you at the newly reconvened Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference in Baltimore. If not, we are confident that you are doing good work somewhere else and trust that we will connect in the future.

Enjoy,

Mark Lance
IAS board member

RENEWING THE ANARCHIST TRADITION (RAT)
A Scholarly Conference
November 5-7, 2010, in Baltimore, Maryland

REGISTER NOW! (see below)

The RAT conference, organized by the Institute for Anarchist Studies (IAS), is returning after a year’s hiatus—over the weekend of November 5-7, 2010, in Baltimore, Maryland. For those of you who have attended the conference in the past, it will be different this year.

First, the IAS board decided to reshape RAT as an “anarchist intervention,” similar to the aim of our new Anarchist Interventions book series. We’ve developed nearly two-dozen questions (see below) for RAT that we hope capture some of the key concerns and dilemmas that contemporary anarchism and anarchists face at present. Each question will serve as a panel, but rather than a distinction between speakers and audience, the panelists will briefly offer their thoughts on the question as a way to open up space for everyone to engage in conversation and debate. The questions are meant to push and further develop anarchist analysis and social theory as well as our political practices. Beyond this close and participatory reflection at RAT, we plan to audiotape all the panels and then make them widely available to others as part of a new weekly IAS podcast series.

Second, RAT will be in Baltimore rather than in its former central Vermont location, with the logistics around space, food, and housing kindly being organized by the folks at Red Emma’s Bookstore and Cafe. Just like in the past, we’re limiting RAT to 150 people, with all panelists included in that number. Everyone must also register and pay for the conference as well as their own travel costs in order for us to collectively self-fund this project. We’ll again do our best, though, to offer scholarships/sliding scale to those in need.

As always, RAT is meant to be a space outside professionalized, commodified sites of learning and education, where longtime anarchists can meet as peers and comrades to grapple with ideas together, in as intellectually open and curious, yet politically engaged and grounded, a way as possible. It is not an academic conference, nor meant as something to add to one’s CV; instead, RAT aims to encourage a culture of public intellectuals, autonomous and collective scholarship, and critical yet visionary thinking, especially among those who are marginalized by the education-industrial complex. RAT, in short, is a dialogue among politically active anarchists who see theory and analysis as part and parcel of their organizing efforts to transform society.

The RAT conference is co-organized by IAS board members David Combs, Mark Lance, Cindy Milstein, Maia Ramnath, and Joshua Stephens, and friend of the IAS James Birmingham.

Hey Everyone!

A quick announcement about some upcoming IAS events. IAS board member Cindy Milstein is doing a 5 date book tour this month, and recent IAS grantee Judith Arcana has two upcoming events in Chicago. See below:

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Institute for Anarchist Studies Summer 2010 Newsletter


Contents:

Announcing Our Grant Awards for Summer 2010
Updates on IAS Grant Projects
Announcing the Second Title in the Anarchist Intervention Book Series
Perspectives on Anarchist Theory: Recent and Next Issues
Renewing the Anarchist Tradition Conference, Rethought for 2010
IAS at the U.S. Social Forum
IAS Meets Twitter
And Finally, If You Love Us, Send Us a Donation!

Announcing Our Grant Awards for Summer 2010

As always, the Institute for Anarchist Studies (IAS) board is pleased to announce our latest grant awards; as always, it was also a tough decision, involving many hours of dialogue and debate to narrow it down to our four grant recipients. The board would like to publicly thank everyone who applied, and of course heartily congratulate Kolya Abramsky, Emma Dixon, James Generic, and the Rosehip Medic Collective on their IAS grant awards. We hope to publish their finished pieces in the online and/or print versions of our journal, Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, in the near future. And now, here’s a glimpse at the four projects, each of which received $500 to assist in the writing process:

From A New World from Below

A New World From Below: An Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarian Convergence at the 2010 U.S. Social Forum

The New World from Below workshops will take place both within the “official” USSF schedule and at the anarchist convergence space, so as to be part of the official USSF schedule, but also to get the word out on many other self-organized workshops as a part of our presence.

New World From Below convergence center open hours

Thursday June 24 -Saturday June 26 * 10AM-6PM

Besides our program of evening events and free meals starting on Wednesday evening, the convergence center will be open during the day – stop by for info on what’s going on, to have a cup of coffee, pick up a schedule, drop off or pick up material from the free literature tables, or get in touch at anarchistussf@gmail.com to arrange to use the space for self-organized caucuses and workshops.