Category Publications

Sedition #2

The second edition of Sedition was launched at the inaugural Sydney Anarchist Bookfair. It contains articles on ‘How I became an anarchist’, ‘The wage system and its abolition’, ‘A brief history of the International Workers Association in Australia’ and more. Printed copies are available at Jura Books in Sydney and the Melbourne Anarchist Club in Melbourne. You can download a copy of #1 and #2 here. A third edition is planned for publication later in the year.

MAC infoshop opening this Saturday!

Super exciting! Melbourne’s only anarchist infoshop will be launching this Saturday evening from 7pm until late!

See the MAC blog for more details. There’s also the Facebook event.

Black Light #1

We have added Black Light #1, a publication of the Melbourne Anarchist Club, to our Anarchist Texts page. Check out the eye-popping cover after the break.

2nd Annual Melbourne Anarchist Bookfair 2012

The second annual Melbourne Anarchist Bookfair is a little over a month away. It takes place on Saturday, August 4 at the Abbotsford Convent. Last year’s fair was very successful and this year’s promises to be even more so. For more information please see the bookfair website.

Mutiny #64

Mutiny #64 has hit the streets and internet and is available for download.

Okupación: Film Screening at MAC 14/3/2012

About the film:

Squatted social centers are proliferating all across Europe. Ordinary people are occupying empty buildings in urban areas, turning them into free, open and public space.

Alongside music and art collectives, concerts, food co-operatives and community gardens one also finds construction workshops, child care, language classes, political talks and even legal advice on social and economic rights.

These community activities are indicative of bourgeoning social and political autonomist movements, emerging from within the walls of these occupied buildings.

Watch this, urban publicization of, space.

 

Okupación will be screened at venues across Melbourne over the next week.

Melbourne Anarchist Club

Wednesday 14/3/2012. Starts 7:30pm. Free/donation

New International Bookshop
(Trades Hall)

Thursday 15/3/2012. Starts 7:30pm. Free/donation

Irene Warehouse

Wednesday 21/3/2012. Starts 7:30pm. Free/donation

House of Bricks

Thursday 22/3/2012. Starts 7:30pm. Free/donation

 

Mutiny #63 is out

Head over to Jura’s website to download the latest copy of Mutiny.

Article topics include:

  • Occupy Sydney
  • The role of credit within capitalism
  • The politics of borders
  • Attacks on a bank and train station in Melbourne

Cover for Mutiny #63

Complicity, Traitors, Compromise and Other Media Interactions by Nick A.

It is unequivocally clear that corporate media perpetuates the hegemony of the capitalist state. Ideally, we respond by constructing forms of anarchist communication powerful enough to render the capitalist media irrelevant. However, amongst anarchist communities, occasions arise where individuals and collectives make decisions to engage with corporate media.

This engagement is often met with understandable concern, interest, derision and sometimes outright hostility. In this article then, I explore some of the tensions associated with media interaction by looking at a few brief examples. I conclude by suggesting that outright rejection of all interaction with corporate media limits some opportunities to reach a wider audience.

During the height of the Greek revolt in December 2008, a proposal was put forward at an anti-authoritarian/anarchist assembly in Exarchia, Athens: interrupt a major news broadcast by storming the studio, unfurl political banners, and then escape triumphantly into the streets. The proposal was generally not supported.

Some raised fears that this protest would ultimately serve the advertisers whose product appeared after the political action. Others were concerned that such an action would contribute to the spectacle of the mass media; where instead of living actual experiences, viewers watch representations of their life on t.v. and in doing so become politically neutralized spectators. And yet others were furious that comrades would want anything to do with the dogs of the mass media – they argued that any engagement with the mass media signalled nothing less than complicity with capitalism, the state, and corporate media.

Regardless, the next week a different collective went ahead with the proposed action targeting NET, one of Greece’s biggest TV stations. On December 16th, after manoeuvres reminiscent of an Ian Fleming novel, the 3pm live national news broadcast on the NET. channel was hijacked when activists stormed the studio. For two or so minutes, political banners were unfurled by a group of anarchists, anti-authoritarians and fellow non‑defined activists. They read:

Everyone get out in the streets, Freedom to the Prisoners of the Insurrection and Freedom to Everyone.

With the desired goals of the action met, the activists fled the building before the cops had a chance to finish their donuts.

 

I provide this short anecdote as a way of universalising some of the tensions associated with media interaction. Whether it is in the advanced anarchist milieu of Athens or – as I will shortly discuss – in Sydney, interactions with capitalist and state-owned media are everywhere fraught with complex political issues and are sources of tension.

Download Sedition

Sedition, a joint publication between MAC, Jura and Organise!, was launched last night at MAC. You can download it by going to the following permalink: anarchy.org.au/sedition.

Sedition will be launched in Sydney on Saturday March 10 at Jura Books from 3pm.

Any future editions will also be posted there. We will also publish some of the articles on this site over the coming weeks.