Allies – "Victoria" Anarchist Reading Circle

January 19: Festivals of Resistance: 40 Street-Legal Ways to Fight Fascists

Posted on January 5, 2025 - January 20, 2025 by Orange

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

In response to an Anonymous anarchist callout for Festivals of Resistance against a second Trump term, as well as our own foreboding Conservative federal election victory too in “Canada,” we will be discussing 40 Ways to Fight Fascists: Street-Legal Tactics for Community Activists (2020 revised) by Spencer Sunshine. See also: an optional more recent bonus podcast with Spencer talking about the work.

We ask you to please read the pieces ahead of time. We also encourage everyone to bring suggestions for our next readings.

As always, we meet at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, on Lekwungen Territory. The next meeting is Sunday January 19th @ 6:30PM.

While this reading has an American focus, the Canadian-law version 40 Ways to Fight the Far Right: Tactics for Community Activists in Canada is currently unavailable online.

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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. They need help from volunteers.

September 29: Nonviolence and Ally Mythology

Posted on September 18, 2024 by Orange

Spilling over from our last conversation on Turning Away from The State, we decided to revisit the classic Accomplices Not Allies: Abolishing the Ally Industrial Complex (2014) by Indigenous Action (now Indigenous Abolition), and to pair it with Peter Gelderloos’ Debunking the myths around nonviolent resistance (2020).

This provocation is intended to intervene in some of the current tensions around solidarity/support work as the current trajectories are counter-liberatory from my perspective. Don’t construe this as being for “white young middle class allies”, just for paid activists, non-profits, or as a friend said, “downwardly-mobile anarchists or students.” There are many so-called “allies” in the migrant rights struggle who support “comprehensive immigration reform” which furthers militarization of Indigenous lands. – Accomplices Not Allies

The Floyd rebellion follows a long tradition of movements using a diversity of tactics to achieve their goals, discrediting champions of nonviolence. – Debunking nonviolent resistance

Accomplices Not Allies is available as to read here online or as a printable imposed zine.

Debunking the myths around nonviolent resistance is available online for free through Roar Magazine or as a custom printable imposed zine.

As always, we meet at Camas Books and Infoshop, 2620 Quadra Street, on unceded Lekwungen Territory at 6:30pm on Sunday September 29th.

September 15: Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en Solidarity

Posted on September 2, 2024 - September 2, 2024 by Orange

Recently, the Hereditary Chiefs of the Gitanyow village on Gitxsan territory burned a copy of a Mutual Benefits Agreement they’d signed with the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) Pipeline 10 years ago. They also set up a blockade at one of the access points on Gitanyow territory to not allow any PRGT construction crews in.

Simogyet Watakhayetsxw of the Lax Ganeda, or the Raven Frog clan, said: “The BC government, the federal government, defending PRGT. I am putting you on alert. There will be no trucks on my territory. And I will defend the territory as best I can.” She further notes: “For those people that are defending the Gitanyow, the Gitxsan and the Wet’suwet’en, I invite you to stand on the lines with the Gitanyow. Come and stand with my Wilp [house groups of the clans].”

The “Victoria” Anarchist Reading Circle stands in full solidarity with the Gitxsan people and their defense of their land.

The Gitxsan people have stood with their Wet’suwet’en siblings in joint struggle against a similar oil project — the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline. To sharpen our anarchist understandings of what being a̶l̶l̶i̶e̶s accomplices to Indigenous sovereignty looks like, we have decided to read Jeff Corntassel’s Life Beyond the State: Regenerating Indigenous International Relations and Everyday Challenges to Settler Colonialism (2021), a publication out of the local University of “Victoria’s” Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies (ADCS) journal.

Corntassel, going back to 2005, has been part of articulating a theory of decolonization called Indigenous Resurgence, whose resonance with anarchism lies in turning away from the state as a site to conquer or to emulate. Rather, Corntassel, in this piece and others, has argued for an understanding of decolonization that begins from place-based land oriented relationships, where, one warrior at a time, the values, practices and ways of relating are generated that renew Indigenous ways of making decisions, honouring relationships and enacting self-determination. Life Beyond the State in particular also emphasizes Indigenous understandings of internationalism as a critical aspect of decolonization.

“We’ve seen this relationship between Indigenous warriors and anarchists that has been developing over the years, and I think that combining those two groups particularly is a really powerful move against the State, it’s a real threat when we act together, and so I just want to encourage people to act on that, because we’re on the right track, we’re winning this fight, and we just have to push harder and keep going, and push the envelope even further than we already have.” – Molly Wickham

The reading Life Beyond the State is available on the ADCS website, the Anarchist Library, or as an imposed zine.

As always, we meet at Camas Books and Infoshop, 2620 Quadra Street, on unceded Lekwungen Territory at 6:30pm on Sunday September 15th.

BONUS: June 2: People’s Park Solidarity

Posted on May 26, 2024 - May 26, 2024 by Orange

In solidarity with Palestinians, and our comrades on the frontlines at People’s Park and across Turtle Island, we will be reading Why the State Can’t Compromise with the Movement in Solidarity with Gaza from Crimethinc and Enclosures of Possibility: The University & The Encampment from UBC. We ask folks to read these pieces ahead of time.

Why the State Can’t Compromise with the Movement in Solidarity with Gaza is available as screen or imposed zine PDF.

Since the end of the Second World War, genocide has been understood as the clearest example of absolute evil. “Never again!” has been held up as a moral imperative. Although the United States has used this narrative cynically on numerous occasions to justify military intervention, it nonetheless expressed the laudable judgment of people of conscience everywhere.

The current conflict amounts to this: either the United States empire must be dismantled or the conscience of a whole generation will be destroyed.

Enclosures of Possibility: The University & The Encampment is available as screen or imposed zine PDF.

Enclosures of Possibility will give us a local, “Canadian” context to compliment the Crimethinc piece.

We will be meeting at People’s Park at The Quad at UVIC on June 2nd at 7PM. (unceded Lekwungen Territory). More information about People’s Park can be found on their Linktree or Instagram. People’s Park asks that all participants follow Camp Guidelines and Demands before entry.

photo credit: @thalugraphy

October 15th: A Critique of Ally Politics Double Header

Posted on October 3, 2023 by Creatrix

Spilling over from our discussion on how “Reconciliation is Dead” we turned to Tawinikay’s evocation of the Two-Row Wampum representing the original intent of cooperation and equality that was part of the earliest relations between Indigenous and Settler peoples (specifically the Haudenosaunee and the Dutch). We then talked about what, in a similar spirit, could be most relevant for our movements today and decided to read a few classics to get our bearings on the matter.

For October 15th, we will be reading two texts contesting the term “Ally.” The first text is the classic, “Accomplices not Allies: Abolishing the Ally Industrial Complex,” from Indigenousaction.org, which you can get from this link. A Print-friendly .pdf is available here. The second text is from Crimethinc. and is called “Ain’t No PC Gonna Fix It Baby: A Critique of Ally Politics”, which you can get from the Anarchist Library here.

As always, we meet at Camas Books and Infoshop, 2620 Quadra Street, on unceded Lekwungen Territory at 6:30pm on Sunday October 15th.

October 1st: Reconciliation is Dead: A Strategic Proposal

Posted on September 21, 2023 - September 25, 2023 by Light

In lieu of the Canadian State’s declaration of the national ‘holiday’ “National Day for Truth and Reconciliation” observed September 30th, we have decided to read Reconciliation is Dead: A Strategic Proposal (2020) by Métis water defender Tawinikay. In the piece, Tawinikay asserts that “the concept [of reconciliation] is a state-led smoke screen used to advance a more sophisticated policy of assimilation” that perpetuates and ensures the survival of the settler-colonial state.

Reconciliation is Dead is free to read on the Anarchist Library, and is also available as an imposed PDF.

Optionally, Autonomously and with Conviction: A Métis Refusal of State-Led Reconciliation is a recommended sister-text, which is also available as an imposed PDF.

As always, we are meeting at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, on Lekwungen Territory. The next meeting is Sunday October 1st @ 6:30PM.

July 9: Indigenous Identity & Appropriation

Posted on June 28, 2023 - June 29, 2023 by Light

The genocidal settler-colonial Canadian state is celebrating its 156th official year of colonialism, racism, and capitalism on July 1st, and so we have naturally circled back to our Indigenous readings.

We have decided to read Michif-Cree anarchist Tawinikay’s piece Settlers on the Red Road (2021), which digs into hard questions of Indigenous identity and settlers in anarchist spaces who choose to take it up. Her zine is a critique of both identity, as well as its appropriation.

Settlers on the Red Road is available for free to read on the Anarchist Library. It is also available as an imposed PDF zine (double-side short edge) here.

As always, we are meeting at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, on Lekwungen Territory. The next meeting is Sunday July 9 @ 6:30PM.

May 14: Solidarity on Stolen Native Land

Posted on May 2, 2023 by Light

Our study of Indigenous anarchist movements abroad has encouraged us to more closely study the theory and solidarity actions for settler-Indigenous solidarity coming out of so-called “Canada.” The zine Social War on Stolen Native Land: Anarchist Contributions from Black Banner Distro (2017) engages with an alternative perspective that assumes that people have their own valid reason for struggling, and that by coming together from a shared position, we can have stronger and more powerful relationships. Through the lens of past anarchist activity in Canada, the zine explores the ways – both theoretical and practical – in which settler anarchists have attempted historically to act in solidarity with Indigenous resistance.

The reading is available in Screen or Imposed PDF Format on SproutDistro: https://www.sproutdistro.com/catalog/zines/anti-oppression/social-war-stolen-land/

As always, we are meeting at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, on Lekwungen Territory. The next meeting is Sunday May 14 @ 6:30PM.

June 30: Art as Resistance

Posted on July 19, 2020 - November 14, 2020 by Creatrix

Resistance is a process that pushes to understand how to unravel social dynamics and tensions, in the hope that from such an act would emerge meaningful solutions. Art, as a mean of expression, can speak and address such tensions.

For our next reading circle, we will be reading and discussing the following two writings:

> Pedagogical Subversion: The “Un-American” Graphics of Kevin Pyle, by Allan Antliff. Allan explores the work of Kevin Pyle, an illustrator whose work highlights the many social issues in the United-States. The writing discusses how Art can be used to unravel some of the state’s ideological tools and motivations, including the prison and the legal systems.

Link to the PDF

> Accomplices Not Allies, from Indigenous Action, is an indigenous perspective on the “ally industrial complex”, which stems from the “institutionalization” of allyship and its steering away from meaningful support.

Link to the PDF

Although we are no longer physically meeting as a group, we still operate on occupied, unceded Lekwungen territory. Our next meeting will be held on our private Jitsi server on Tuesday, July 28th at 7pm PST.

Jitsi is open-source software that is fully encrypted end-to-end, and which does not track your IP address. In the time when it seems like everyone’s falling for the most insecure communications platforms motivated solely to collect, sell and trade in your data, we created our own Jitsi instance as an infrastructural countermeasure.

If you are interested in participating in this week’s reading circle, please contact varc[at]victoriaanarchistreadingcircle.ca introducing yourself to confirm your place in the shadow-cabinet list and obtain access to the meeting.

March 3: Reconciliation is Dead: A Strategic Proposal

Posted on February 24, 2020 - February 24, 2020 by Creatrix

The Land is Ceremony, Erin Marie Konsmo (Metis/Cree)

As we rally for Wet’suwet’en and Tyendinaga today, we are also looking forward to the next Victoria Anarchist Reading Circle where we will continue discussing the writings of Southern Wind Woman. Very recently, Southern Wind Woman published a text on the current moment of Wet’suwet’en solidarity actions. This is very fresh, so enjoy!:

“Reconciliation is Dead: A Strategic Proposal”:

https://itsgoingdown.org/reconciliation-is-dead-a-strategic-proposal/

The next Anarchist Reading Circle is scheduled for Tuesday March 3^rd – doors 6:50, discussion at 7:00pm. As always, we will meet at Camas Books (2620 Quadra) on unceded, occupied Lekwungen Territory.

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