Philly Anti-Capitalist Philly Anti-authoritarian News

from Facebook

A talk and discussion with AK Press author Shon Meckfessel

US social movements face many challenges. One of their most troublesome involves the question of nonviolence. Civil disobedience and symbolic protest have characterized many struggles in the US since the Civil Rights era, but conditions have changed. Corporate media has consolidated, the police have militarized, dissent has been largely co-opted and institutionalized, but the strategic tools radicals employ haven’t necessarily kept pace. Our narratives, borrowed from movements of the past, are falling short.

Nonviolence Ain’t What It Used to Be maps emerging, more militant approaches that are developing to fill the gap, from Occupy to Black Lives Matter. It offers new angles on a seemingly intractable debate, introducing ideas that carve out a larger middle-ground between camps in order to chart an effective path forward.

More info about the book: https://www.akpress.org/nonviolence-ain-t-what-it-used-to-be.html
[December 16 from 7pm to 9pm at Wooden Shoe 704 South St]

from Facebook

**this assembly will take place at Lava Space**

We are calling for an assembly on Saturday with the intention to review recent events (not only Trump but yes also Trump), share analysis and criticism, and announce plans for ongoing and upcoming projects.

Since this is an anti-authoritarian assembly, it will not provide a platform for political parties. Additionally, the assembly will not provide space for discussions of political or economic reform. Displays of oppressive behavior will be confronted and opposed.

This assembly is not a decision making body. It is a space to increase coordination, communication and discuss what we would like to see in the future.

This is an open assembly, please help maintain a culture of security, as we cannot promise a cop and snitch free environment.

Format:
TBA

[November 12 from 3 to 6 PM at LAVA Space 4134 Lancaster Av]

from Facebook

A joint book talk by:
Anatole Dolgoff, author of Left of the Left: My Memories of Sam Dolgoff (AK Press, 2016)
and
Andrew Cornell, author of Unruly Equality: U.S. Anarchism in the 20th Century (University of California Press, 2016)

Sam Dolgoff, a house painter by trade, was at the center of American anarchism for seventy years. His political voyage began in the 1920s when he joined the Industrial Workers of the World. He rode the rails as an itinerant laborer, bedding down in hobo camps and mounting soapboxes in cities across the United States. Self-educated, he translated, edited, and wrote some of the most important books and journals of twentieth-century anti-authoritarian politics, including the most widely read collection of Mikhail Bakunin’s writings in English.

Yet the movement changed in important ways during Sam’s long tenure, as anarchists engaged with events and social forces such as the rise of the welfare state, atomic warfare, the black freedom struggle, and a succession of youth countercultures. Unruly Equality explains how anarchism evolved from the creed of poor immigrants militantly opposed to capitalism early in the twentieth century to one that today sees resurgent appeal among middle-class youth and foregrounds activism around ecology, feminism, and opposition to cultural alienation.

Bringing together first-hand recollections and archival research, Antaole Dolgoff and Andrew Cornell illuminate a crucial, but little known, chapter in the history of radical politics.

[October 15 from 7PM to 9PM at Wooden Shoe Books 704 South St]