The 20th century was the century that trusted in the future. Or, as Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi – veteran of the 1977 Italian post-workerist movement and founder of the legendary pirate radio station Radio Alice – states in the opening pages of his newest work, ‘After the Future’, “Liberalism and social democracy, nationalism and communism, and… Read More »
It is rare to discover a book as trenchant, poetic and philosophically profound as The Garden of Peculiarities. Originally published in Spanish in 2002, translated into English in 2005 and now re-released by local alternative publisher Missing Books, this short work by Chilean anarchist and radical environmentalist Jesús Sepúlveda is nothing less than a manifesto… Read More »
When we look out at the sky at night, we’re also looking back into the past. The light from distant stars takes so long to reach us that we cannot really be sure that, in reality, they’re still there. Although the myriad things that surround us on Earth – rocks and rose bushes and… Read More »
“The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.” – Murray Bookchin There is something significant in how the forms of collective action and the underlying ethos of the Occupy movement have been misunderstood and misrepresented. For critics, there’s something deeply discomforting about the conceptually slippery and… Read More »
NB: This is an updated version of an old article titled ‘it ain’t easy being green’. Introduction Few people now deny that many of the essential natural systems that sustain all life on Earth are profoundly threatened by human activity. Among countless other horrors, vast expanses of richly biodiverse rainforest have been decimated to make… Read More »
What is the crime of looting a corporate chain store next to the crime of owning one? – Luther Brecht The sheer volume of commentary from across the political spectrum has made it hard to keep up with, and even harder to know where to stand on, the widespread riots that have set fire to… Read More »
I heard it yet again the other day: ‘if you’re not a socialist by age 19, you have no heart. If you’re not a capitalist by age 29, you have no brain.’ What fascinates me about this ‘truism’ – and those who spout it – is its sense of utter resignation. Not only are we… Read More »
Ivo Vegter was rousing. In a recent article on The Daily Maverick website the well-known local free market ideologue and climate change denialist dutifully performed his well-rehearsed cherry-picking dance of apologist rhetoric in an unsuccessful attempt to ward off the growing grassroots opposition to Shell’s application to prospect for natural gas in the Karoo using… Read More »
Along with my partner Steffi, I’ve been travelling the world for the last six months filming a documentary introduction to anarchism. We’ve met an eclectic array of anarchists, hung out in some of the coolest autonomous spaces and infoshops in the world, been given way too many interesting books and gorged ourselves on cheap vegan… Read More »
This piece was originally published on Thoughtleader.co.za in early 2011. When I visit a restaurant, my opening line to the waiter is usually ‘Hi, I’m vegan. What do you suggest?’ What I really mean when I say this is: ‘Hi, I was just wondering…I don’t eat meat and I don’t want anything with butter in… Read More »