May 18, 2019
Classic essay by the late Joel Olson reflects on the state of US anarchist milieu from the 1990-2000's advocating the need for analysis, strategy and popular movements.
[Anarchist theory] must reject the current U.S. anarchist scene’s “infoshops or insurrection” approach to politics and instead focus on movement building. Organizing working class movements, which was so central to the classical anarchist tradition, has given way to creating “autonomous zones” like infoshops, art spaces, affinity groups, and collectives on the one hand, and glorifying protests, riots, and sabotage on the other. But in the infoshops and insurrection approaches, the vital work of building movements falls through the middle.