Anti-Racism – "Victoria" Anarchist Reading Circle

March 9: Community Control of the Poor Community

Posted on February 3, 2025 - February 21, 2025 by Orange

GET THE READING HERE: ZINE OR SCREEN, AUDIO (note multiple parts), CAMAS BOOKS‘ FREE BOX, or EMMA’S FREE LIBRARIES AROUND TOWN

Facilitators should note the Facilitation Guide.

Note that we have moved VARC to March 9th to accommodate the Anarchism Across the Arts Conference at University of ‘Victoria,’ which is free for everyone to attend. Next time, we will be meeting to discuss Community Control of the Poor Community: An Organising Manual for Community Activists (2008 edition) by Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin, a former Black Panther turned Black anarchist. This pamphlet is an extract out of the book called Anarchism and the Black Revolution and has been slightly edited to be more contextually relevant to the conditions of South Africa.

As always, we meet at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, on Lekwungen Territory. Our meeting is Sunday March 9th @ 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. They need help from volunteers.

Mar 3: Intersectional Black Anarchafeminism

Posted on February 19, 2024 - February 19, 2024 by Light

In honour of International Women’s Day on March 8th, combined with our yearning for more Black Anarchafeminism after What Is Black Anarchism?, we decided on reading more on Black Feminism, Anarchism, and Intersectionality.

We will be reading The Combahee River Collective Statement (1977) as a primer for our other two readings Femme Queen, Warrior Queen: Beyond Representation, Toward Self-Determination (2021) by Nsambu Za Suekama and Until All Are Free: Black Feminism, Anarchism, and Interlocking Oppression (2016) by Hillary Lazar.

The Combahee Statement includes the early formulation of “identity politics,” and argued that various oppressions such as racism, sexism, heteronormativity, and classism are interrelated and must be addressed as a whole. They also believed that Black feminism was the logical political movement to fight against these simultaneous oppressions.

Femme Queen, Warrior Queen and Until We Are All Free together draw insights from various sources, including the Street Trans* Action Revolutionaries, Claudia Jones, the Combahee River Collective, Frantz Fanon, and Malcolm X. The central message is that centering Black trans women not only advances their liberation but also contributes to the universal freedom of all African and oppressed people. The piece emphasizes the need to transcend divisive discourse and work toward transformative movements that address material conditions and internalized antagonisms within the Black trans struggle1. It invites readers to engage with honesty, good faith, and a commitment to revolutionary learning and movement building.

The Combahee River Collective statement can be read on BlackPast or downloaded here. It can also be listened to as a podcast episode on A People’s Anthology, read by Beverly Smith, one of the original members of the Combahee River Collective.

Femme Queen, Warrior Queen is on the Anarchist Library, as well as Until We Are All Free. These two are able to be downloaded packaged together here as Screen or Imposed Zine.

As always, we meet at Camas Books and Infoshop, 2620 Quadra Street, on unceded Lekwungen Territory at 6:30pm on Sunday March 3rd.

Feb 18: What Is Black Anarchism?

Posted on February 4, 2024 - February 14, 2024 by Light

In honour of Black History Month, we will be watching and discussing Andrewism (Andrew Sage)’s video What is Black Anarchism? (2021), which is also available to be read as a zine.

Andrew in his (video) essay introduces the concept and history of Black Anarchism, a political philosophy and movement that combines the principles of anarchism with the experiences and struggles of people of racialized Black people. He explains the main features and goals of Black Anarchism, such as opposing all forms of oppression, with particular emphasis on racism and white supremacy, and creating a non-hierarchical and self-determined society. He also mentions some of the prominent Black Anarchists and their contributions, such as Ashanti Alston, Kuwasi Balagoon, Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin, and Martin Sostre, who have been invisibilized by their White counterparts.

The text version of the essay is available on the Anarchist Library as screen or imposed zine PDF.

It is also available through our website: screen or imposed zine PDF.

As always, we meet at Camas Books and Infoshop, 2620 Quadra Street, on unceded Lekwungen Territory at 6:30pm on Sunday February 18th.

June 23, 7PM: Restorative Justice & Prison Abolition Discussion

Posted on June 16, 2020 by Creatrix

Gilmore Drawing upon our previous readings, we decided to take the topic of systemic racism and the police state further to explore issues relating to prison abolition and restorative justice.

We will be discussing two readings:

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, June 23th 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.

Restorative justice infographic

June 9: Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect?

Posted on June 3, 2020 by Creatrix

Justice for George Floyd

Given the recent events galvanizing resistance to systemic racism and police brutality in North America, we decided to delve deeper into the issue in order to unpack what it means in terms of building communities against social oppression and State violence. Our next reading is an excerpt from the edited anthology, Who Do You Serve? Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States. It was edited by Joe Macaré, Maya Schenwar, and Alana Yu-lan Price, and recently came out on The Anarchist Library this May, 2020.

We have assembled a series of 4 chapters from the second half of the book to discuss at our next circle.

Heeding the Call: Black Women Fighting for Black Lives That Matter by Thandisizwe Chimurenga
Our History and Our Dreams: Building Black and Native Solidarity by Kelly Hayes
A New Year’s Resolution: Don’t Call the Police by Mike Ludwig
Building Community Safety: Practical Steps Toward Liberatory Transformation by Ejeris Dixon

Get it here:

Excerpt: Macare, Schenwar & Price: Who Do You Serve? Who Do You Protect?

1 file(s) 134.11 KB

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Although we are no longer physically meeting as a group, we still operate on occupied, unceeded Lekwungen territory. Our next meeting will be held on our private Jitsi server on Tuesday, June 9th at 8pm 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.

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Excerpt: Macare, Schenwar & Price: Who Do You Serve? Who Do You Protect?

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