Remembrance Day, in “Canadian” national mythology, signals the end of World War 1, an imperialist travesty where the ruling classes of France, Germany, England, Italy, Austria-Hungary and Russia fomented war fever against each other, which also distracted from and weakened working class uprisings in their countries, harnessing energy instead towards squabbles over imperial carve-out rivalries globally. As Canada’s then Prime Minister Robert Borden saw it, the fight in supporting the British, was “to put forth every effort and to make every sacrifice necessary to ensure the integrity and maintain the honour of our empire.”
We will be discussing anarchist sentiments leading up to World War 1, including anarchist critiques and anti-war resistance organizing, as well as the problematic history of some prominent European anarchists, such as Peter Kropotkin, that had supported sentiments leading up to the bloody First World War.
We are discussing three small readings packaged together: Patriotism: a menace to liberty (1905) by Emma Goldman, Anti-War Manifesto (1915) by The Anarchist International, and The Manifesto of the Sixteen (1915) by Sixteen Comrades. Goldman’s Patriotism investigated her country’s (at the time small, but growing) United States military in regards to nationalism and national identity as dangerous distractions. She positied that patriotism both obscured the real interests of working class people and caused unnecessary bloodshed. Anti-War was a manifesto written by anarchists opposing the prospects of a Great European War and pleading to other anarchists to cease warmongering activities. Manifesto of the Sixteen was written by anarchists encouraging the prospects of a Great European War and promoting anarchist activities and support statements for the victory of the Allied Powers over the Central Powers during the First World War.
The readings are available as single pages/screen or as custom imposed zine PDF (short-edge).
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 November 24th @ 6:30PM.
PS: Our friends at Food not Bombs serve free vegan food for revolution every Sunday 4-6PM at Spirit “Centennial” Square. They are always looking for extra support from volunteers.
PPS: A global majority-prioritized Liberation Reading Circle, unaffiliated with VARC, has also started at Camas. Their first meeting is Wednesday, December 4th from 6:30PM-8:00PM. Get their reading here!
For our next meeting, we are going to be discussing deference politics — the organizing tendency to defer to someone else’s judgment about what should be done in a given situation based solely on their perceived social location. We are going to dissect this tendency through “Being-in-the-Room Privilege: Elite Capture and Epistemic Deference” (2020) by Olúfémi O. Táíwò, and the local Ada’itsx “Fairy Creek” anarchist zine Creeker’s “Water Falling on Granite: Deference Politics, Indigenous Leadership, and Anarchist Relationality” (2023).
Next time, we will be discussing Sobre la violencia en una época de catástrofes AKA About violence in a time of catastrophes (2023). We will also be pairing it with an excerpt, Chapter 7: Trusting, from Worth Fighting For: Bringing the Rojava Revolution Home. (2023)
Our last readings got us into talking about building collective capacity to become better ̶a̶l̶l̶i̶e̶s̶ accomplices. We also briefly touched on the Black Panther Party’s programs (and formulation of revolutionary Self Care) which brought communities together to build this capacity, which naturally led us into Crimethinc’s Self-Care: Self as Other (2013). 
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).
In early preparation for September’s upcoming Bi Visibility Week, we have chosen readings that centre the admirable bisexual freedom fighter Kuwasi Balagoon. While the two readings don’t place especial emphasis on Balagoon’s orientation, they do provide a thorough overview of his contributions to the struggle for Black liberation in the 70s and 80s. Both texts, Maroon: Kuwasi Balagoon and the Evolution of a Revolutionary New Afrikan Anarchism by Akinyele K. Umoja and Kuwasi at 60 by Kazembe Balagun, chronicle Balagoon’s daring acts of insurgency. Their scope includes Balagoon’s time before and after joining the Black Panther Party, his organizing in prison, and his later criticisms of the Black Panther Party from an anarchistic standpoint. These accessible historical accounts are sure to stoke more curiosity about the revolutionary figure and time period they illuminate.
Good security practices are essential to effective, sustainable organizing. We have decided to review these practices by reading two zines about security culture, Security Culture: A Handbook for Activists and Confidence. Courage. Connection. Trust: A Proposal for Security Culture.
For August 4th, our reading group will be focusing on two pieces about fascism and authoritarianism.