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.

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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.

Feb 16: Demodernizing Anarchism

Posted on January 20, 2025 - February 21, 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 will be discussing Jesse Cohn’s Demodernizing Anarchism (2022).

Dr. Cohn acknowledges the calls from some Indigenous scholars about the need to decolonize liberatory theory–that is, to locate and identify the ways in which our theories about collective liberation might be built on assumptions about settler colonialism as a way of life. He argues we need to go further and consider demodernizing anarchism: locating and identifying the ways in which anarchism is built on assumptions about science, progress, and revolution that might limit our thinking about what radical alternatives might look like. – The Anarres Project

As always, we meet at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, on Lekwungen Territory. The next meeting is Sunday February 16th @ 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. 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

Announcing the First ‘Victoria’ Anarchist Film Festival

Posted on April 30, 2024 - April 30, 2024 by Light

Our friends from the ‘Victoria’ Anarchist Bookfair collective, in conjunction with Camas Books and FreeSkool ‘Victoria,’ are proud to announce this year’s first ‘Victoria’ Anarchist Film Festival, operating on unceded L’kwungen territory, from May Day (May 1st) to May 11th.

While no one will be turned away at the door, we encourage donations, which support this year’s bookfair. The full screening schedule can be viewed here.

Feb 4: Klee Benally – Unknowable: Against an Indigenous Anarchist Theory

Posted on January 31, 2024 - January 31, 2024 by VARC.Anon

In honour of the late trailblazing Diné anarchist and land defender Klee Benally who joined the ancestors last month, we will be reading and discussing his groundbreaking zine Unknowable: Against an Indigenous Anarchist Theory.

Klee builds upon existing work by Aragorn! on Locating an Indigenous Anarchism, identifying natural affinities and alliances between Indigenous cosmologies and Anarchism. He also touches on the anti-Indigenous racism in the American left-anarchist scene, both in history and the contemporary.

Klee explains “Indigenous autonomy needs no theoretical foundation to justify itself” and renounces the fixture of “anarcho-Indigenous” as a revolutionary appendage to settler anarchism. Klee suggested doing so runs the risk of having an Indigenous Anarchism as something eventually locked in old theory belonging to settler linear time “in the past,” no longer able to stay relevant like other cemented settler anarchisms. He asserts that if an Indigenous Anarchism is to exist, it should not adhere to settler politics or conceptions of time. It should be adaptable, dynamic, fluid, unmappable, unknowable.

The zine is available to read or download on Indigenous Action’s website: https://www.indigenousaction.org/unknowable-against-an-indigenous-anarchist-theory-zine/

Both versions available on the website are here as well: zine format for printing and readable format for screen reading.

As always, we meet at Camas Books and Infoshop, 2620 Quadra Street, on unceded Lekwungen Territory at 6:30pm on Sunday February 4th.

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.

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