January-April 2026 “Militant Kindergarten” from the Center for Especifismo Studies

Posted on December 4, 2025 - December 4, 2025 by Orange

Militant Kindergarten 2025 - CES While ‘Victoria’ Anarchist Reading Circle is still on hiatus, we want to bring special attention to the Center for Especifismo Studies (CES), who for their free online Militant Kindergarten course, each Sunday 9AM PST from Jan 11 – April 19 2026 takes inspiration from the Anarchist Federation of Rio de Janeiro (FARJ, which we have studied before) and their Social Anarchism and Organisation (2008).

According to the CES:

Militant Kindergarten is a 15-week seminar
Combining radicalizing and radicalized people into a shared learning space
Studying especifismo, a revolutionary current of anarchism coming from Latin America
Reading Social Anarchism and Organisation by the FARJ (the Anarchist Federation of Rio de Janeiro) and the abridged CES version, “104 Steps to Recovery of the Social Vector”
Refining and developing our understanding of anarchist theory, strategy, and militancy
Discussing specific passages, concepts, and theories
Aiming to create a dependably safe and welcoming environment for learning

*All the organizers have already attended this seminar at least once, and at the end, we’ll invite anyone interested to join us in organizing future Militant Kindergartens.

Click here to learn more about or sign up for CES’ Militant Kindergarten.

September 20/21: Announcing The 20th “Victoria” Anarchist Bookfair

Posted on September 9, 2025 by Orange

We are happy to announce our friends on the “Victoria” Anarchist Bookfair Collective are holding the 20th Annual “Victoria” Anarchist Bookfair, happening on September 20th and 21st at the Fernwood Community Centre on unceded Lekwungen territory.

The Bookfair will include vendors, free workshops, and a Festival of Anarchy leading up to the weekend. Entrance is free.

“The Fernwood NRG is fully wheelchair accessible, and we will be providing free masks to everyone at our event. We aim to avoid replicating the barriers in society that derive from social oppression.”

You can find more information about this year’s Bookfair here.

August 17: Anarchist Commitment, Responsibility and Self-discipline

Posted on July 22, 2025 - August 13, 2025 by Orange

GET THE READING HERE: SCREEN, ZINE, AUDIO, CAMAS BOOKS’ FREE BOX, or EMMA’S FREE LIBRARIES AROUND TOWN.

Facilitators should note the Facilitation Guide.

We close our circle with a reflection of Thoughts on Commitment, Responsibility and Self-discipline (2014) by the Anarchist Federation of Rio de Janeiro (FARJ.) Commitment, Responsibility, and Self-discipline emphasizes the importance of continual self-discipline and sustained militancy for anarchists. Critiquing the authoritarian socialist understanding of discipline “from above” as a doctrine, it suggests anarchists must seriously make their positions viable and grounded with clear goals in mind. The text suggests the importance of anarchists to commit to their actions and have follow-through on tasks with procedural frameworks for mutual and self-reinforcement.

The piece reflects on historical conversations between, and the lessons learned by, anarchist revolutionaries Nestor Makhno, an anarchist-communist who helped organized the Ukrainian anarchist Makhnovschina which at its height saw a population of 7.5 million people, and Errico Malatesta, an insurrectionary-turned-syndicalist anarchist who breathed life into dozens of protests, general strikes, and uprisings. The piece aims at showing how these lessons can be applied to members of the FARJ and the wider anarchist tradition.

This is our last VARC for a while as the Circle goes into hiatus. Please write and bring notes. We meet at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, on Lekwungen Territory. Our meeting is Sunday August 17 @ 6:30PM.

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PS: Our friends at the Anarchist Network of “Vancouver Island” have put together a list of anarchist and adjacent projects on the territory. If you are looking to involve yourself in anarchist activism, look at their trifold! Particularly, Food not Bombs serves free vegan food for revolution every Sunday 4-6PM at Spirit “Centennial” Square and have been facing increasing harassment tied to the gentrification of the Square. Come show up to eat! They also need help from volunteers.

July 20: Migrant Justice, Community Defence and Anti-ICE Protest in Yaanga (“Los Angeles”)

Posted on July 11, 2025 - July 11, 2025 by Orange

GET THE READING HERE: SCREEN, ZINE, CAMAS BOOKS’ FREE BOX, or EMMA’S FREE LIBRARIES AROUND TOWN.

Facilitators should note the Facilitation Guide.

Next time, we will be discussing various reportbacks from anarchists and radicals participating in migrant defence and anti-ICE protests in the so-called “United States,” zeroing in on Yaanga (“Los Angeles,” Tongva land.)

The following short reportbacks have been combined into a single reading: Revolt and Representation: A View from the Battle for Los Angeles by Cuauhtli & Mapaches Clandestinxs, It Never Has Been, It Always Will Be: On the “Right” Time To Act by Ignatius, and Fuck I.C.E. City-Wide: Los Angeles Goes Up by Anonymous.

As always, we meet at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, on Lekwungen Territory. Our meeting is Sunday July 20 @ 6:30PM.

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Art credit: Jesse Lee

PS: Our friends at the Anarchist Network of “Vancouver Island” have put together a list of anarchist and adjacent projects on the territory. If you are looking to involve yourself in anarchist activism, look at their trifold! Particularly, Food not Bombs serves free vegan food for revolution every Sunday 4-6PM at Spirit “Centennial” Square and have been facing increasing harassment tied to the gentrification of the Square. Come show up to eat! They also need help from volunteers.

July 13: Conflict & Trauma Accessibility in Organizing

Posted on June 11, 2025 - July 11, 2025 by Orange

GET THE READING HERE: ZINE, CAMAS BOOKS’ FREE BOX, or EMMA’S FREE LIBRARIES AROUND TOWN.

Facilitators should note the Facilitation Guide.

Next time, we will be discussing the zine a relational conflict practice to support trauma-accessibility.

Please note we have moved the date from July 6 to July 13th to accommodate the Camas crew as they move items in and out of the shop during Pride. As always, we meet at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, on Lekwungen Territory. Our meeting is Sunday July @ 6:30PM.

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PS: Our friends at the Anarchist Network of “Vancouver Island” have put together a list of anarchist and adjacent projects on the territory. If you are looking to involve yourself in anarchist activism, look at their trifold! Particularly, Food not Bombs serves free vegan food for revolution every Sunday 4-6PM at Spirit “Centennial” Square and have been facing increasing harassment tied to the gentrification of the Square. Come show up to eat! They also need help from volunteers.

June 22: Dykes Nation & Victoria Tenants Union Collaboration The Battle of Tuntenhaus and the Fight to Abolish Rent

Posted on May 25, 2025 - June 4, 2025 by Orange

GET THE READING HERE: ZINE OR SCREEN, CAMAS BOOKS’ FREE BOX, or EMMA’S FREE LIBRARIES AROUND TOWN.

Facilitators should note the Facilitation Guide.

In collaboration with Dykes Nation and the Victoria Tenants Union, we will be reading Chapter 1: Rent is the Crisis ahead of time, from Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis’ Abolish Rent: How Tenants Can End the Housing Crisis (2024) as a primer for the movie The Battle of Tuntenhaus (1991) by Juliet Bashore, which we will be watching together at Camas.

Abolish Rent is from two co-founders of the largest tenants union in the “United States,” and is a deeply reported account of the resurgent tenant movement centres poor and working-class people who are fighting back, staying put, and remaking the city in the process.

The Battle of Tuntenhaus is a documentary film following the inhabitants of the Tuntenhaus, (“house of queers”) a gay and drag queen squat on Mainzer Strasse in East Berlin. The film takes place during the Automon movement.

As always, we meet at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, on Lekwungen Territory. Our meeting is Sunday June 22nd@ 6:30PM.

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PS: Our friends at the Anarchist Network of “Vancouver Island” have put together a list of anarchist and adjacent projects on the territory. If you are looking to involve yourself in anarchist activism, look at their trifold! Particularly, Food not Bombs serves free vegan food for revolution every Sunday 4-6PM at Spirit “Centennial” Square and have been facing increasing harassment tied to the gentrification of the Square. Come show up to eat! They also need help from volunteers.

June 8: Abolishing the Family Again, A Manifesto for Care and Liberation

Posted on May 23, 2025 - June 4, 2025 by Orange

GET THE READING HERE: ZINE OR SCREEN, CAMAS BOOKS’ FREE BOX, or EMMA’S FREE LIBRARIES AROUND TOWN.

Facilitators should note the Facilitation Guide.

Next time, we will be reading selections from Sophie Lewis’ Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation (2022). We will be discussing Chapter 2: Abolish Which Family? and Chapter 3: A Potted History of Family Abolitionism

As always, we meet at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, on Lekwungen Territory. Our meeting is Sunday June 8th @ 6:30PM.

—

PS: Our friends at the Anarchist Network of “Vancouver Island” have put together a list of anarchist and adjacent projects on the territory. If you are looking to involve yourself in anarchist activism, look at their trifold! Particularly, Food not Bombs serves free vegan food for revolution every Sunday 4-6PM at Spirit “Centennial” Square and have been facing increasing harassment tied to the gentrification of the Square. Come show up to eat! They also need help from volunteers.

May 25: The Formation of Local Councils

Posted on April 27, 2025 - April 27, 2025 by Orange

GET THE READING HERE: ZINE OR SCREEN, AUDIO, CAMAS BOOKS’ FREE BOX, or EMMA’S FREE LIBRARIES AROUND TOWN.

Facilitators should note the Facilitation Guide.

“We are not less than the workers of the Paris Commune… They lasted 70 days and we are still here since a year and a half.” – Omar Aziz

Next time, we will be reading The Formation of Local Councils: To Live in Revolutionary Time (2012) by the martyred Syrian anarchist Omar Aziz. This foundational, strategic proposal inspired Local Councils in large swathes of Syria during the Syrian revolution against the Assad regime. Local Councils provides insights relevant to all anarchists and anti-authoritarians organizing for a more just society.

“Our hope is that by translating and distributing this text to make more visible the Syrian revolution, which has so often been denied or conflated with the armed groups that share its territories. Often leftists who support the Assad regime or anarchists who support the YPG/PYD will ask things like, “Are there really liberatory groups in these areas? What are their names? What are their ideas?” as if the organization of daily life needed a name, a website, and an English-language spokesperson to exist.” – Translator’s Introduction

You can learn more about Omar Aziz and his legacy here.

As always, we meet at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, on Lekwungen Territory. Our meeting is Sunday May 25th @ 6:30PM.

—

PS: Our friends at the Anarchist Network of “Vancouver Island” have put together a list of anarchist and adjacent projects on the territory. If you are looking to involve yourself in anarchist activism, look at their trifold! Particularly, Food not Bombs serves free vegan food for revolution every Sunday 4-6PM at Spirit “Centennial” Square and have been facing increasing harassment tied to the gentrification of the Square. Come show up to eat! They also need help from volunteers.

May 11: Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation

Posted on April 21, 2025 - May 23, 2025 by Orange

Facilitators should note the Facilitation Guide.

Next time, we will be reading selections from Sophie Lewis’ Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation (2022). We will be discussing Chapter 1: But I Love My Family! and Chapter 4: Comrades Against Kinship.

As always, we meet at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, on Lekwungen Territory. Our meeting is Sunday May 11th @ 6:30PM.

—

PS: Our friends at the Anarchist Network of “Vancouver Island” have put together a list of anarchist and adjacent projects on the territory. If you are looking to involve yourself in anarchist activism, look at their trifold! Particularly, Food not Bombs serves free vegan food for revolution every Sunday 4-6PM at Spirit “Centennial” Square and have been facing increasing harassment tied to the gentrification of the Square. Come show up to eat! They also need help from volunteers.

April 27: Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution in Rojava

Posted on April 3, 2025 - April 26, 2025 by Orange

GET THE READING PORTION HERE: ZINE OR SCREEN, CAMAS BOOKS‘ FREE BOX, or EMMA’S FREE LIBRARIES AROUND TOWN.

ALSO LISTEN (35:00-end, 20m) and WATCH (14m)

Facilitators should note the Facilitation Guide.

We will be discussing the Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution methods and praxis of Rojavan revolutionaries in the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

VARC-goers are expected to read Peacebuilding in a Conflict Setting: Peace and Reconciliation Committees in De Facto Rojava Autonomy in Syria (2017) by Dr. Yasin Duman, listen to The Women’s War podcast episode 5 Grandma Law And Revolutionary Sacrifice, (2020) and watch the SubMedia video The Fall of the Regime (2025) ahead of time for our discussion.

As always, we meet at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, on Lekwungen Territory. Our meeting is Sunday April 27th @ 6:30PM.

—

PS: Our friends at the Anarchist Network of “Vancouver Island” have put together a list of anarchist and adjacent projects on the territory. If you are looking to involve yourself in anarchist activism, look at their trifold! Particularly, Food not Bombs serves free vegan food for revolution every Sunday 4-6PM at Spirit “Centennial” Square and have been facing increasing harassment tied to the gentrification of the Square. Come show up to eat! They also need help from volunteers.

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