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Public discussion in Bath - Anarchy vs Chaos: An Introduction to Anarchism

BARF | 16.11.2012 17:47 | Analysis | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles

A series of short presentations and group discussions, examining the relevance of anarchism in modern-day Britain.

Introduction to Anarchism event poster
Introduction to Anarchism event poster


Just wanted to let you know about this talk happening next Saturday:

* * *

Black And Red Federation
 bathactivistnet@yahoo.co.uk

16/11/12

MEDIA RELEASE – for immediate use
Anarchy vs. Chaos: An Introduction to Anarchism

On Saturday 24th November, from 3 until 6pm in the Coffee Lounge of Manvers Street Baptist Church in Bath (a minute's walk from Bath Spa train station), the Black And Red Federation will be organising a discussion on anarchism, and invite members of the public to come along and take part. The group feels that recent government policy and business lobbyists have made the UK a better place for millionaires and rightwing politicians, but an increasingly uncertain and unhealthy place for everyone else.

Anarchism has received a bad press ever since its birth 219 years ago, with anarchists forced into stereotypes of either violent thugs or sandal-footed hippies – caricatures repeated by both the media and political establishment on one side, but also by self-proclaimed anarchists on the other. But many anarchists see it differently: the philosophy has come a long way since its roots amongst the Taoists of ancient China and the Christian heretic Anabaptists of 16th Century Europe, promoting mutual respect, equality and rationality, and opposing oppression wherever it appears. Indeed, anarchism had become a mass movement of hundreds of thousands of everyday people fighting for and winning freedom in 1920s Ukraine and 1930s Spain, however briefly. Far from embracing destruction and chaos, anarchists say that 'Anarchism is Order'!

In Bath on the Saturday, a handful of local speakers will make short presentations on the ideas and history of this important but controversial political philosophy, before breaking down into longer group sessions where all present are invited to discuss and offer their two cents. The group will ask whether, in this current climate of biting austerity and growing global unrest, anarchists and their ideas have any role to play?

Entry is free, food and hot drinks will be available, as will stalls of literature, and all are welcome to come along and join them on the day!
 
Notes to the Editor:

If you would like any further information, please email bathactivistnet[at]yahoo.co.uk

You may also want to check out any of the following:

 https://network23.org/barf
+

BARF
- e-mail: bathactivistnet@yahoo.co.uk
- Homepage: network23.org/barf

Comments

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Relevance to modern Britain?

16.11.2012 23:46

I didn't recognise all the faces but... Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, Buenaventura Durruti, Lucy Parsons, Nestor Makhno, Peter Kropotkin... all LONG dead

Doesn't look like a movement that's doing a good job of proving its relevance to modern Britain... even Noam Chomsky (bless him) is 84 and not actually from Britain

H

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This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Question

16.11.2012 23:48

If it's a case of "anarchy vs chaos", how come THIS anarchist signed themself off as "CH(A)OSisHERE"? -

 https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/11/502895.html?c=on#comments

Lars

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IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Proudhon, Bakunin, Malatesta -

16.11.2012 23:56

Also long dead and none of them British

Lion

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This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Anarcho Comedy Gold

17.11.2012 21:23

Anarchist thinking has failed to adapt to the realities of the modern welfare state, and is therefore irrelevant to people living under that State. The biggest threat faced by the working-class is the erosion and privatisation of services provided by the same State that Anarchists say they want to... abolish!

While Anarchists actively bury their own heads in the sand (by, for instance, censoring comments like this from Indymedia) most people are well aware of this contradiction, and that's why, in the face of unprecedented attacks on working people, anarchist groups are actually shrinking or in some cases even packing-up completely, in the midst of a political situation in which (if Anarchist "solutions" actually made sense) by rights Anarchist groups ought instead to be experiencing massive growth.

In terms of examining the "relevance" of Anarchism in modern day Britain, advertising your meeting with a poster filled almost entirely with the faces of long-dead anarchists (or in 1 or 2 cases at least very elderly Anarchists) says it all.

Keep on spiking the criticism!! Proving you're incapable of debating criticism must be a GREAT way of engaging the general public?

Bakunin was a racist

Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Bakunin's racism

17.11.2012 21:29

"This whole Jewish world, comprising a single exploiting sect, a kind of blood sucking people, a kind of organic destructive collective parasite"

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakunin#Anti-semitism

It's a fact - censor it now !!!!

Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Barf?

18.11.2012 21:57

Barf? As in vomit?

Another 80s-style anarchopunk cultural fail

Jonathan

Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Relevance

19.11.2012 11:10

Around 3,000 Anarchists travelled to London for this year's Bookfair, and about 2,950 of those convinced themselves that collecting slim volumes about Errico Malatesta etc was more important than confronting the EDL in the same fucking town on the same fucking day. Likewise many Anarchists convinced themselves that participating in the biggest fucking display of working-class solidarity in the UK this year was participating in "a to b marches" which "don't achieve anything". Since then IMC have been busy spiking posts about the National Health Action Party, presumably because this party must be somehow more hierarchical than either the NHS itself (!) or indeed the hierarchy that allows IMC mods to spike comments which reveal how selectively IMC apply their own "guidelines". Relevance? NONE! The main achievements of UK anarchism have been to allow the movement to be used as a means for the State and right-wing media to discredit popular protest and to be used to provide camouflage for undercover cops

Keep on censoring the criticism

Rolled steel

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