It’s nice that anarchism has gotten more popular recently, even if the circumstances are shit. At the same time, there are lots of folks who don’t know what anarchists think or what they do. Actions say more than any definition, so here’s a very short list of things anarchists have been up to:
Anarchists everywhere have been on the front-lines against the resurgence of fascism. According to Mark Bray: “In the United States, most [antifascists] have been anarchist or antiauthoritarian since the emergence of modern antifa under the name Anti-Racist Action (ARA) in the late eighties.” Anarchists have played big roles in protests against Donald Trump and the alt-right, primarily through monitoring and doxxing, but confronting them directly when necessary. The same is true across Europe, with some anarchists in Greece even killing neo-Nazis.
Throughout Europe (but especially Greece), anarchists are providing shelter and care for migrants, as well as organizing social services like healthcare that would normally be done by the state.
Anarchist volunteers have been fighting Daesh in northern Syria for several years. They have been defending the Kurdish region of Rojava, a revolutionary experiment dedicated to gender equality, ethnic & cultural diversity, secularism, and moving beyond capitalism and the state.
Where medicine is expensive and constrained by intellectual property, anarchist biohackers like those in the Four Thieves Vinegar Collective have been hard at work teaching people how to make their own medicines. On a related note, anarchists and feminists have also hosted conferences in Pittsburgh about queering biotechnology, which included biohackers like Four Thieves as well as a few people behind open-source estrogen, a project “for cis and trans women to take greater control over their bodies by creating their own birth control, gender transition, or menopause symptom alleviation hormone replacement therapies, sans institutional gatekeepers.”
Anarchists with C4SS are currently doing a fundraiser to help start queer self-defense groups in Brazil, in the wake of Bolsonaro’s election and the violence that has been unleashed against queer people.
Speaking of Brazil, anarchists there are pushing for greater representation for women in mathematics — a traditionally male-dominated field.
During the year-long blackout in Puerto Rico, anarchists organized a self-managed solar power grid in Mariana, restoring power two months ahead before the government reached them. Among the things the grid powered was a communal kitchen, a laundromat, and an office. The idea spread across the country.
Anarchists and other radicals in North Carolina organized disaster relief after Hurricane Florence struck, arriving ahead of NGOs and the government. They were even able to coordinate aircraft and fly supplies in.
Anarchists and other radicals helped organize relief for people displaced by the wildfires in California last year, aiding 100 people. They set up two big tents, both of which contained pillows, books, chairs, etc.
Back in 2017, anarchists in Portland took it upon themselves to fill in potholes that were caused by bad weather. To quote one participant: “We aren’t asking permission, because these are our streets. They belong to the people of Portland, and the people of Portland will fix them.”
In Indonesia, anarcho-syndicalists have formed a union to fight Uber. The union has at least 6,000 members, is organized horizontally, and there are no dues to pay.
I’m sure I’m leaving out a lot more, but hopefully some of this stuff will inspire you.
dededos
romaincrisis
yousharknotpass
theartofmadeline
titsay
stormborns
kaledo-art
