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.

April 13: Care Pod Mapping Workshop

Posted on April 1, 2025 - April 1, 2025 by Orange

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

Next time, we will be hosting a Pod Mapping Workshop led by community activists and abolitionists Audrey and Corina.

Care Pod Mapping is a concept developed by disability activist Mia Mingus as a part of creating stronger and more interdependent liberatory community. A care pod is a network of people who you can seek support from to if violence, harm, or abuse has happened to you, if you caused harm, if you have witnessed harm, or if you are just seeking more support in your life.

We will also discuss related concepts of Relationship Anarchy, with two small optional primer readings: The short instructional manifesto for relationship anarchy (2006) by Andie Nordgren and Ideal Care Menus conceptualized by Ndeye Oumou Sylla.

As always, we meet at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, on Lekwungen Territory. Our meeting is Sunday April 13th @ 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.

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.

July 21: People’s Poetry

Posted on July 15, 2024 by Daisy

Seeking to continue interrogating academic institutions, in step with the Palestinian liberation movement, we have chosen a reading that criticizes power structures within and surrounding universities. The essay, entitled ‘People’s Poetry’, comes from andrea bennett’s collection Like a Boy but Not a Boy, and places scrutiny on the response to UBC’s investigation of Steven Galloway back in 2016. bennet examines the event in parallel with another from Canadian literature’s history, illustrating a pattern of how certain voices are devalued by established authors and academics in favour of their own. The reader is called to consider how the impulse to protect some people can further disempower others, and how the burden of proof is handled surrounding accusations of sexual assault.

A PDF of the reading can be acquired here:

(andrea bennett) People's Poetry

1 file(s) 4.29 MB

Download

As always, we meet at Camas Books and Infoshop, 2620 Quadra Street, on unceded Lekwungen Territory at 6:30pm on Sunday July 21st

July 7: Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild

Posted on July 3, 2024 - July 4, 2024 by Daisy

We will be discussing a short horror story written by Octavia Butler.

The story, entitled Bloodchild, explores the relationship between a colony of humans in space and their alien hosts, known as the Tlic. The story develops this dynamic by focusing on the experiences of the narrator, his family, and his Tlic partner, exploring themes of power, autonomy, and manufactured dependence.

Content warning: From descriptions in the text, the Tlic are essentially humanoid centipedes, and reproduce parasitically. This may be disturbing to those with a fear of bugs. The story also involves scenes and discussions of body horror, which may be disturbing to those with bodies. Please proceed with caution, and feel free to skip this reading if you find the subject matter needlessly upsetting.

For those still interested in reading Bloodchild, it can be obtained here as a PDF:

(Octavia Butler) Bloodchild

1 file(s) 100.81 KB

Download

As always, we meet at Camas Books and Infoshop, 2620 Quadra Street, on unceded Lekwungen Territory at 6:30pm on Sunday July 7th.

Apr 14 – Anarchist Education:

Posted on April 10, 2024 by VARC.Anon

This week we’ll be exploring different anarchist pedagogies through the writings of Judith Suissa, whose PhD research was on the topic of anarchist education. Today, Judith works as a lecturer in philosophy of education at the Institute of Education, University of London.

You can download the chapter here, as well as on the Anarchist Library.

As always, we will be meeting at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra street, unceded Lekwungen territory. The next session will take place on Sunday, April 14 at 6:30pm.

Mar 17: There Is No Revolution Without Madness

Posted on March 13, 2024 - March 13, 2024 by VARC.Anon

The essay “There Is No Revolution without Madness.” explores what it means to be dedicated to an opposition to empire and to be confronted with the violence of the status quo, and the machinations of the normative “rational” ideology.

“WHAT USE is “measured rationality” when to be Reasonable means to dying quietly, all the time? Notes from the text, “How to Go Mad Without Losing Your Mind.”

The reading and audio version can be found on Ismatu Gwendolyn’s substack, a pdf version of the substack page can be downloaded here.

As always, we meet at Camas Books and Infoshop, 2620 Quadra Street, on unceded Lekwungen Territory at 6:30pm on Sunday March 17th.

Jan 21: Uri Gordon – Anarchy Alive! chapter 6 – Homeland

Posted on January 14, 2024 - January 14, 2024 by VARC.Anon

Next circle, we are reading Chapter Six, titled, “Homeland: Anarchy and Joint Struggle in Palestine/Israel” by Uri Gordon. This is the final chapter in Anarchy Alive! (2008) and it offers insights on the issues, challenges, and movements involved in solidarity and direct action struggles within occupied and contested State forms. This will be a good reading to do in preparation for the talk on the 28th.

Uri Gordon will be in dialogue with Palestinian sociologist Mohammed Bamyeh on Sunday January 28th, 2024 at Sunset Labs, 400 Herald Street (behind Value Village), in “Victoria, BC”. Doors open at 11:30am, discussion starts at 12:00pm. The talk is accessible online through Zoom by following this link.

The chapter begins with a historical account of the Israeli State project and an introduction to the occupation of Palestine as well as the anarchist presence in the region at this time. The chapter discusses solidarity in terms of allies as supporters/followers, the consequences of resistance, including State repression, blacklisting, violence, and even death, which these activists routinely face, and the resulting contractions that can arise when working for change across varying degrees of social and cultural differences.

Gordon introduces examples of solidarity and resistance as practiced by two groups, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and Anarchists Against the Wall, the direct action group formed in opposition to the ‘Segregation Barrier,’ a.k.a. the ‘Apartheid Wall.’ ISM is known for the cooperation they have achieved between Jews and Palestinians, as well as Internationals, who, among other things, act as human shields in zones of increasing militarised violence within the region. Complimenting this history, the Anarchists Against the Wall movement consciously integrates diverse struggles, creating networks of resistance intersecting across different forms of oppression, as exemplified by the relationships between the anarchists and queer and animal liberation movements. In the end, Uri Gordon offers a path of shared development in struggle that argues for the nuanced articulation of place-based identity in terms of Indigeneity and bioregionalism.

We will also be discussing the final sections of Come Hell or High Water: A Handbook on Collective Process Gone Awry (pages 81-125). This is an optional reading.

As always, we meet at Camas Books and Infoshop, 2620 Quadra Street, on unceded Lekwungen Territory at 6:30pm on Sunday January 21st.

The chapter by Uri Gordon can be downloaded here, and pages 81-125 of Come Hell or High Water can be downloaded here. Please see the previous post for a download of the full version of Come Hell or High Water if you desire.

November 12: Always Against the Tanks

Posted on November 4, 2023 by VARC.Anon

To paraphrase what our friend Suraia said during last week’s media literacy presentation with Wil, “Seeing the hammer and sickle makes me immediately mistrust the source.” We will be further exploring “red nationalism” with the zine Always Against the Tanks, which explores the resurgence of Tankism and authoritarian Marxism.

The reading is available for free on the Anarchist Library: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/various-authors-always-against-the-tanks

Or you can download the pdf here

As always, we meet at Camas Books and Infoshop, 2620 Quadra Street, on unceded Lekwungen Territory at 6:30pm on Sunday November 12th.

August 6: How to Start a Libertarian Municipal Fire

Posted on July 31, 2023 - July 31, 2023 by Light

We were split down the middle between delving more into insurrectionary anarchist theory, and social, organizational anarchist theory. Therefore, we have decided to read both How to Start a Fire:
An Invitation by Anonymous, (2017) and Libertarian Municipalism: An Overview by Murray Bookchin (1991) congruently.

Both of these texts are available for free through the Anarchist Library:

How to Start a Fire: An Invitation by Anonymous (2017)

Libertarian Municipalism: An Overview by Murray Bookchin (1991)

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

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