Audible Anarchism

Neither Lord nor Subject by Bao Jingyan

Full text: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/neither-lord-nor-subject

Pao Ching-yen (zh:鮑敬言) (also transliterated as Bao Jingyan) was a Chinese Taoist libertarian philosopher who lived 405-466 AD.

A successor of Laozi and Zhuang Zhou in the politically-ethically libertarian strain of Taoism, Pao Ching-yen was, according to Etienne Balazs “China’s first political anarchist.” He extended the arguments in the Zhuangzi to deeply critique State authority and power.

Anarchist Taoist emblem courtesy of kronik29, you can find more of their work here: https://www.deviantart.com/kronik29/art/Anarcho-taoist-Emblem-140709637

Taoism and Anarchism

Full Text http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/josh-anarchism-and-taoism

Anarchism is usually considered a recent, Western phenomenon, but its roots reach deep in the ancient civilizations of the East. The first clear expression of an anarchist sensibility may be traced back to the Taoists in ancient China from about the sixth century BC. Indeed, the principal Taoist work, the Tao te Ching, may be considered one of the greatest anarchist classics.

Anarchy and Communism by Carlo Cafiero

Full text here https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/carlo-cafiero-anarchy-and-communism

"My friends, let us hurry on the Revolution as quickly as we can, since, as you see, our enemies are letting us die like this - in prison or in exile, or crazed with sorrow" - Spoken by Cafiero at Giuseppe Fanelli's funeral.

"The common wealth being scattered right across the planet, while belonging to the whole of humanity, those who happen to be within reach of that wealth and in a position to make use of it will utilise it in common. . . . As part of humanity, they will exercise here, in fact and directly, their rights over a portion of mankind's wealth. But should an inhabitant of Peking visit this country, he would enjoy the same rights as the rest, in common with the others, he would enjoy all the wealth of the country, just as he would have in Peking." [From Anarchy and Communism, a report given by Cafiero to the Congress of the Jura Federation of the IWMA in 1880. In Daniel Guérin, No Gods, No Masters, Book 1, p. 250]

"Carlo was first of all great for his inner nature, for the affect treasure, for the ingenuousness of his faith. These memories must not be lost, even today that there is the need to elevate the moral level of anarchists, who must react against the egoism and brutality that invade us, to return to unselfishness, to the sacrificial spirit, to the sentiment of love, of which Carlo was such a splendid example". - Errico Malatesta, in a letter to Serafino Mazzotti.

On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber

Read the full text https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-on-the-phenomenon-of-bullshit-jobs-a-work-rant

David Graeber (1961- ) is an anarchist, anthropologist, and activist who currently holds a professorship in anthropology at the London School of Economics. Graeber has written extensively on theories of value, social theory, direct action, and ethnographic theory. He participated in the Occupy movement and is a member of the Industrial Workers of the World. In this essay, Graeber links the psychological impulses of bullying--both of bullies and of passive observers of bullying--to structures of power inherent within hierarchical authority. He contends that from a young age, we are socialized to side with bullies and against victims, and we are socialized to see victims as either deserving their punishment or of having the same moral worth as the bullies themselves.

Against institutional cis-heterosexism by Sonia Muñoz Llort

Full text here https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/sonia-munoz-llort-anarcha-feminism-against-institutionalized-misogyny-homophobia-and-transphobi

"White middle-class privileges are a reality we white feminists must acknowledge in order to change all the oppressive systems that surrounds us. Historically speaking, we like to see ourselves as pioneers in fighting for women’s rights giving this an intrinsically ethnocentric role in women’s struggle, being that the reason behind concepts such a mainstream or majority feminism. However, we are neither majority nor pioneers. This rhetoric is part of our privileges, which has been sold by the tendency of empowerment among Western feminists. Empowerment does not challenge the structures at all, and even less destroys them in order of building new structures based on equality."

Towards the Queerest Insurection by Mary Nardini Gang

Full text here:https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/mary-nardini-gang-toward-the-queerest-insurrection

Some will read “queer” as synonymous with “gay and lesbian” or “LGBT”. This reading falls short. While those who would fit within the constructions of “L”, “G”, “B” or “T” could fall with - in the discursive limits of queer, queer is not a stable area to inhabit. Queer is not merely another identity that can be tacked onto a list of neat social categories, nor the quantitative sum of our identities. Rather, it is the qualitative position of opposition to presentations of stability - an identity that problematizes the manageable limits of identity. Queer is a territory of tension, defined against the dominant narrative of white hetero monogamous patriarchy, but also by an affinity with all who are marginalized, otherized and oppressed. Queer is the abnormal, the strange, the dangerous. Queer involves our sexuality and our gender, but so much more. It is our desire and fantasies and more still. Queer is the cohesion of everything in conflict with the heterosexual capitalist world. Queer is a total rejection of the regime of the Normal.

Murray Bookchin "Ecology and Revolutionary Thought" - Part 3

Full text https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lewis-herber-murray-bookchin-ecology-and-revolutionary-thought

 

Murray Bookchin (1921-2006) was an anarchist and libertarian socialist political theorist, historian, and author. He is perhaps best remembered as a thinker who fused critical ecology with anarchist thought, but his conceptions of democratic confederalism have influenced numerous social and political movements, including the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (also know as Rojava).

In part 3, Bookchin discusses how classical libertarian principles can be combined with ecological thought in order to address the crises inherent to late-stage capitalism.

Murray Bookchin "Ecology and Revolutionary Thought" - Part 2: The Reconstructive Nature of Ecology

Read the Full text https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lewis-herber-murray-bookchin-ecology-and-revolutionary-thought

Murray Bookchin (1921-2006) was an anarchist and libertarian socialist political theorist, historian, and author. He is perhaps best remembered as a thinker who fused critical ecology with anarchist thought, but his conceptions of democratic confederalism have influenced numerous social and political movements, including the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (also know as Rojava).

In part 2, Bookchin discusses how the increased centralization of society has led to increased environmental damage through energy usage and pollution. The solution, he contends, is to decentralize society through anarchist revolution in order to create a society that is in harmony with nature. For humanity to reach any ecological goal, it must become decentralized and anarchistic, thereby allowing individuals to create diverse social and ecological relationships.

Murray Bookchin "Ecology and Revolutionary Thought" - Part 1: The Critical Nature of Ecology

Read the full text: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lewis-herber-murray-bookchin-ecology-and-revolutionary-thought

Murray Bookchin (1921-2006) was an anarchist and libertarian socialist political theorist, historian, and author. He is perhaps best remembered as a thinker who fused critical ecology with anarchist thought, but his conceptions of democratic confederalism have influenced numerous social and political movements, including the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (also know as Rojava). In part 1 of Ecology and Revolutionary Thought, Bookchin addresses the environmental catastrophes that have been produced by imperialistic capitalism and the widespread disconnect between humanity and the environment caused by hierarchical social relationships.

The Idea is the Thing - By Alexander Berkman

The full text:https://libcom.org/library/idea-thing-berkman

Tyranny must be opposed at the start. Autocracy, once secured in the saddle, is diffucult to dislodge. If you believe that America is entering the war "to make democracy safe," then be a man and volunteer.

But if you know anything at all, then you should know that the cry of democracy is a lie and a snare for the unthinking. You should know that a republic is not synonymous with democracy, and that America has never been a real democracy, but that it is the vilest plutocracy on the face of the globe.

If you can see, hear, feel, and think, you should know that King Dollar rules the United States, and that the workers are robbed and exploited in this country to the heart's content of the masters.

If you are not deaf, dumb, and blind, then you know that the American bourgeois democracy and capitalistic civilization are the worst enemies of labor and progress, and that instead of protecting them, you should help to fight to destroy them.

If you know this, you must also know that the workers of America have no enemy in the toilers of other countries. Indeed, the workers of Germany suffer as much from their exploiters and rulers as do the masses of America.

You should know that the interests of Labor are identical in all countries. Their cause is international.

Then why should they slaughter each other?

The workers of Germany have been misled by their rulers into donning the uniform and turning murders. So have the workers of France, of Italy, and England been misled. But why should *you*, men of America, allow yourselves to be misled into murder or into being murdered?

If your blood must be shed, let it be in defense of your own interests, in the war of the workers against their despoilers, in the cause of real liberty and independence.