Reviews and Comments

I suppose I ought to read this. It’s the basis of the argument in the Lundström book. I’m getting so worn out on (and wary of) of Eurocentric conceptions of democracy, freedom, and participation though. I would love for any of these Euro-US accounts of collaborative/collective governance to actually trace roots to, for example, ANY of the accounts in Isakhan and Stockwell. Or Kimmerer for that matter. Or Deloria.

Spotted at Room of One’s Own. Great writer writing about a great musician. Should make time for this cause it’ll be really enjoyable.

I went straight to her essay about industrial organization and the casual dropping of Rochdale principles was the cooperative economics connection I was not expecting!

While these days I’m hearing more and more-convincing critique of white anarchism from my abolitionist friends, I guess I am choosing to read about Swedish anarchism cause I continue to struggle with the value and concept of “democracy” versus liberty vs freedom vs justice vs equity… so I’m giving this a go.

So this is getting really interesting, reading this alongside Dunbar-Ortiz’s An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. Questions about utopian visions of family and school resonate across to histories of cultural genocide by residential schools. The Terra Nullius of Anarres, open to be colonized by the white feminist anarchist imagination — there are no questions about indigeneity or conquest (yet). Looking forward to finishing both and pulling these threads apart and together.

A couple years ago I had a student who excitedly told me about how a teacher at her old school had introduced her to this amazing author who was now her very very favorite. Friends, that teacher had introduced her to Ayn Rand (aka Wario to Dorothy Day’s Mario). I bought a paperback copy of The Dispossessed online immediately with the hopes of turning the tide… but the student and her family had moved away before the book arrived. I kept it and am now reading it for a book club, and hoping that student found someone else down the road to steer her away from the ugliness of Randism.

Next book club book, following The Dawn of Everything. We’re trying to pair this with The Dispossessed to see where things might intersect. Right away, Dunbar-Ortiz says, “Those who seek history with an upbeat ending, a history of redemption and reconciliation, may look around and observe that such a conclusion is not visible, not even in utopian dreams of a better society.” So THAT’s something to think through with Le Guin…

Damita has been asking me to try to understand what happened to Europeans politically and socially prior to going on their colonization/genocide/empire/enslavement bender that we’re still trying to find our way out of. Maybe this would be illuminating?

Ryan recommends it so it has to be worthwhile

I shouldn’t have, but I jumped right to the White People: Save Yourselves chapter so now I gotta backtrack from the beginning

Referenced in Ransby’s book about Ella Baker, specifically Baker’s attendance at Brookwood Labor College as an experience of different learning and teaching experiences.

Re-read the interviews with Kathleen Hanna and Martin Sorrondeguy after leaving this sit on the shelf for many many years. Yesterday I needed to hear from some dedicated, engaged, committed geniuses. They were both as inspiring as I’d needed them to be.

Very good praxis, very readable, very actionable. Going to circulate this among the volunteers for our Mutual Aid Circle at school and it will be sure to knock some folks back on their heels and also light some fires.

I try to re-read chapter 2 at least once per school year. This year I’ve read it like 5 times. So critical.