#indian anarchism

[dailyanarchistposts]

YOUNG COMRADES,

Our country is passing through a chaos. There is mutual distrust and despair prevailing everywhere. The great leaders have lost faith in the cause and most of them no more enjoy the confidence of the masses. There is no programme and no enthusiasm among the ‘champions’ of Indian independence. There is chaos everywhere. But chaos is inevitable and a necessary phase in the course of making of a nation. It is during such critical periods that the sincerity of the workers is tested, their character built, real programme formed, and then, with a new spirit, new, hopes, new faith and enthusiasm, the work is started. Hence there is nothing to be disgusted of.

We are, however, very fortunate to find ourselves on the threshold of a new era. We no more hear the news of reaching chaos that used to be sung vastly in praise of the British bureaucracy. The historic question “Would you be governed by sword or pen”, no more lies unanswered. Those who put that question to us have themselves answered it. In the words of Lord Birkenhead, “With the sword we won India and with the sword we shall retain it.” Thanks to this candour everything is clear now. After remembering Jallianwala and Manawala outrages it looks absurd to quote that “A good government cannot be a substitute for self-government.” It is self-evident.

A word about the blessings of the British rule in India. Is it necessary to quote the whole volumes of Romesh Chandra Dutt, William Digby and Dadabhai Naoroji in evidence to prove the decline and ruin of Indian industries? Does if require any authorities to prove that India, with the richest soil and mine, is today one of the poorest, that India which could be proud of so glorious a civilisations, is today the most backward country with only 5% literacy? Do not the people know that India has to pay the largest toll of human life with the highest child death rate in the world? The epidemics like plague, cholera, influenza and such other diseases are becoming common day by day. Is it not disgraceful for us to hear again and again that we are not fit for self-government? Is it not really degrading for us, with Guru Govind Singh, Shivaji and Hari Singh as our heroes; to be told that we are incapable of defending ourselves? Alas, we have done little to prove the contrary. Did we not see our trade and commerce being crushed in its very infancy in the first effort of Guru Nanak steamship co-started by Baba Gurdit Singh in 1914; the inhuman treatment meted out to them, far away in Canada, on the way and finally, the bloody reception of those despairing, broken-hearted passengers with valleys of shots at Bajbaj, and what not? Did we not see all this? In India, where for the honour of one Dropadi, the great Mahabharat was fought, dozens of them were ravaged in 1919. They were spit at, in their naked faces. Did we not see all this? Yet, we are content with the existing order of affairs. Is this life worth living?

Does it require any revelation any revelation now to make us realise that we are enslaved and must be free? Shall we wait for an uncertain sage to make us feel that we are an oppressed people? Shall we expectantly wait for divine help or some miracle to deliver us from bondage? Do we not know the fundamental principles of liberty? “Those who want to be free, must themselves strike the blow.” Young men, awake, arise; we have slept too long!

We have appealed to the young only. Because the young bear the most inhuman tortures smilingly and face death without hesitation. Because the young bear the most inhuman tortures smilingly and face death without hesitation. Because the whole history of human progress is written with the blood of young men and young women. And because the reforms are ever made by the vigour, courage, self-sacrifice and emotional conviction of the young men who do not know enough to be afraid and who feel much more than they think.

Were it not the young men of Japan who come forth in hundreds to throw themselves in the ditches to make a dry path to Port Arthur? And Japan is today one of the foremost nations in the world. Were it not the young Polish people who fought again and again and failed, but fought again heroically throughout the last century? And today we see a free Poland. Who freed Italy from the Austrian yoke? Young Italy.

Do you know the wonders worked by the Young Turks? Do you not daily read what the young Chinese are doing? Were it not the young Russians who scarified their lives for Russians emancipation? Throughout the last century hundreds and thousands of them were exiled to Siberia for the mere distribution of socialist pamphlets or, like Dostoyevsky, for merely belonging to socialist debating society. Again and again they faced the storm of oppression. But they did not lose the courage. It were they, the young only, who fought. And everywhere the young can fight without hope, without fear and without hesitation. And we find today in the great Russia, the emancipation of the world.

While, we Indians, what are we doing? A branch of peepal tree is cut and religious feelings of the Hindus are injured. A corner of a paper idol, tazia, of the idol-breaker Mohammedans is broken, and ‘Allah’ gets enraged, who cannot be satisfied with anything less than the blood of the infidel Hindus. Man ought to be attached more importance that the animals and, yet, here in India, they break each other’s heads in the name of ‘sacred animals’. Our vision is circumscribed by…. * thinks in terms of internationalism.

There are many others among us who hide their lethargy under the garb of internationalism. Asked to serve their country they reply: “Oh Sirs, we are cosmopolitans and believe in universal brotherhood. Let us not quarrel with the British. They are our brothers.” A good idea, a beautiful phrase. But they miss its implication. The doctrine of universal brotherhood demands that the exploitation of man by man and nation be nation must be rendered impossible. Equal opportunity to all without any sort of distinction. But British rule in India is a direct negation of all these, and we shall have nothing to do with it.

A world about social servicre here. Many good men think that social service (in the narrow sense, as it is used and under stood in our country) is the panacea to all our ills and the best method of serving the country. Thus we find many ardent youth contending themselves with distributing grain among the poor and nursing the sicks all their life. These men are noble and self-denying but they cannot understand that charity cannot solve the problem of hunger and disease in India and, for that matter, in any other country.

Religious superstitions and bigotry are a great hinderance in our progress. They have proved an obstacle in our way and we must do away with them. “The thing that cannot bear free thought must perish.” There are many other such weakness which we are to overcome. The conservativeness and orthodoxy of the Hindus, extra-territorialism and fanaticism of the Mohammedans and narrow-mindedness of all the communities in general are always exploited by the foreign enemy. Young men with revolutionary zeal from all communities are required for the task.

Having achieved nothing, we are not prepared to sacrifice anything for any achievement; our leaders are fighting amongst themselves to decide what will be the share of each community in the hoped achievement. Simply to conceal their cowardice and lack of spirit of self-sacrifice, they are creating a false issue and screening the real one. These arm-chair politicians have their eyes set on the handful of bones that may be thrown to them, as they hope, by the mighty rulers. That is extremely humiliating. Those who come forth to fight the battle of liberty cannot sit and decide first that after so much sacrifices, so much achievement must be sure and so much share to be divided. Such people never make any sort of sacrifice. We want people who may be prepared to fight without hope, without fear and without hesitation, and who may be willing to die unhonoured, unwept and unsung. Without that spirit we will not be able to fight the great two-fold battle that lies before us – two-fold because of the internal foe, on the one hand, and a foreign enemy, on the other. Our real battle is against our own disabilities which are exploited by the enemy and some of our own people for their selfish motives.

Young Punjabis, the youth of other provinces are working tremendously in their respective spheres. The organisation and awakening displayed by young Bengal on February 3, should serve as an example to us. Our Punjab, despite the greatest amount of sacrifice and suffering to its credit, is discribed as a politically backward province. Why? Because, although it belong to the martial race, we are lacking in organisation and discipline; we who are proud of the ancient University of Texila, today stand badly in need of culture. And a culture requires fine literature which cannot be prepared without a common and well developed language. Alas, we have got none.

While trying to solve the above problem that faces our country, we will also have to prepare the masses to fight the greater battle that lies before us. Our political struggle ‘began just after the great War of Independence of 1857. It has passed through different phases. Along with the advent of the 20th century the British bureaucracy has adopted quite a new policy towards India. They are drawing our bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie into their fold by adopting the policy of concessions. Their cause is being made common. The progressive investment of British capital in India will inevitably lead to that end. In the very near future we will find that class and their great leaders having thrown their lot with the foreign rulers. Some round-table conference or any such body will end in a compromise between the two. They will no more be lions and cubs. Even without any conciliation the expected Great War of the entire people will surely thin the ranks of the so-called champions of India independence.

The future programme of preparing the country will begin with the motto: “Revolution by the masses and for the masses.” In other words, Swaraj for the 90%; Swaraj not only attained by the masses but also for the masses. This is a very difficult task. Thought our leaders have offered many suggestion, none had the courage to put forward and carry out successfully and concrete scheme of awakening the masses. Without going into details, we can safely assert that to achieve our object, thousands of our most brilliant young men, like Russian youth, will have to pass their precious lives in village and make the people understand what the Indian revolution would really mean. They must be made to realise that the revolution which is to come will mean more than a change of masters. It will, above all, mean the birth of new order of things, a new state. This is not the work of a day or a year. Decades of matchless self-sacrifice will prepare the masses for the accomplishment of that great work and only the revolutionary young men will be able to do that. A revolutionary does not necessarily mean a man of bombs and revolvers.

The task before the young is hard and their resources are scanty. A great many obstacles are likely to block their way. But the earnestness of the few but sincere can overcome them all. The young must come forth. They must see the hard and difficult path that lies before them, the great tasks they have to perform. They must remember in the heart of hearts that “success is but a chance; sacrifice a law”. Their lives might be the lives of constant failures, even more wretched than those which Guru Govind Singh had to face throughout his life. Even then they must not repent and say, “Oh, it was all an illusion.”

Young men, do not get disheartened when you find such a great battle to fight single-handed, with none to help you. You must realise your own latent strength. Rely on yourselves and success is yours. Remember the words of the great mother of James Garfield which she spoke to her son while sending him away, penniless, helpless and resourceless, to seek his fortune: “Nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be thrown overboard to swim or sink for himself.” Glory to the mother who said these words and glory to those who will rely on them.

Mazzini, that oracle of Italian regeneration, once said: “All great national movements begin with unknown men of the people without influence, except for the faith and the will that counts neither time nor difficulties.” Let the boat of life weigh another time. Let it set sail in the Great Ocean, and then:

Anchor is in no stagnant shallow. Trust the wide and wonderous sea, Where the tides are fresh for ever, And the mighty currents free. There perchance, O young Columbus, Your new world of truth may be.

Do not hesitate, let not the theory of incarnation haunt your mind and break your courage. Everybody can become great if he strives. Do not forget your own martyrs. Kartar Singh was a young man. Yet, in this teens, when he came forth to serve his country, he ascended the scaffold smiling and echoing “Bande Mataram”. Bhai Balmukund and Awadh Bihari were both quite young when they gave their lives for the cause. They were from amongst you. You must try to become as sincere patriots and as ardent lovers of liberty as they were. Do not lose patience and sense at one time, and hope at another. Try to make stability and determination a second nature to yourselves.

Let then young men think independently, calmly, serenely and patiently. Let them adopt the cause of Indian independence as the sole aim of their lives. Let them stand on their own feet. They must organise themselves free from any influence and refuse to be exploited any more by the hypocrites and insincere people who have nothing in common with them and who always desert the cause at the critical juncture. In all seriousness and sincerity, let them make the triple motto of “service, suffering, sacrifice” their sole guide. Let them remember that “the making of a nation requires self-sacrifice of thousands of obscure men and women who care more for the idea of their country than for their own comfort and interest, than own lives and the lives of those who they love”.

[all-things-are-nothing-to-me]

[nando161mando]

Oct 14 1982, the Canadian anarchist group Direct Action, composed of Ann Hansen, Brent Taylor, Juliet Caroline Belmas, Doug Stewart and Gerry Hannah, used 550 lbs of stolen dynamite to bomb the Litton Industries factory that was manufacturing guidance systems for 407 US Tomahawk cruise missiles

They first stole 38½ cases of dynamite from a Highways explosives store house months earlier.

They drove a stolen truck alongside the building, stuck a fluorescent warning sign on it, called the security desk to tell them a bombing was imminent and to warn factory workers and local hotel guests to avoid windows.

Dead Kennedys would later sing

"In Toronto someone blew up

A cruise missile warhead plant.

10 slightly hurt, 4 million dollars' damage.

Why not destroy private property

When it's used against you and me?

Is that violence?

Or self-defence?

You tell me "

They would later fire bomb three franchises of "Red Hot Video" which was linked to paedophilic and snuff material.

One of the members Ann Hansen Would later issue Direct Action - Memoirs of an Urban Guerrilla

(Thanks to Detritus Books for the initial post)

[modern-primitivism]

Modern Primitivism

I'm not American-Indian by blood, but I was introduced to the fringe of the culture very young and it effected me quite deeply. I've always kinda been attracted to the idea of being wild and free, living naturally, close to the earth. I eventually became so ashamed of what I saw America (and humanity) had become that I "went native" and renounced all polical and racial ties and became what some call a free man upon the land, like the American Founding Fathers who dressed as natives during the Tea Party, but a step farther. I despise modern culture and pretty much everything most people love. Toss it ALL overboard. It's all crazy. Republicans are crazy. Democrats are crazy. You're ALL crazy. I'd rather be a primative savage than conform to a world gone mad.

[snapcracklepop-myjoints]

For the academia wip game: 35

I LOVE YOU !!!!!!!!

okay so i didnt have any particular system set up because i wasn't expecting anyone to actually see my post or respond lol and all the wip games ive found are very creative writing focused, so I'm going with WIP #3, page 5, (first passage) because the numbers work lol

"...Secondly, in order to acquire federal recognition, a tribal nation must present their history and culture in a way that is acceptable to the state. As such, it necessitates a particular presence in the historical record: one which is legible to the state and in accordance with colonial, statist, conceptions of “history”...."

[khulthuskaotika]

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

THE FUN HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN AT THIS PUNK GATHERING IN NORTHERN LANDS.

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on UK anarcho punk bands FLUX OF PINK INDIANS (top) and THE SYSTEM (bottom), performing live at the Warehouse, Liverpool, UK, on November 4, 1983. 📸: Jenny Plaits.

THE QUIETUS: "Did you listen to much music, other than what your friends were doing, when you were making your first record? I hear lots of things that remind me of primitive US hardcore bands in "Strive," much more than I do with other anarcho bands of the time."

COLIN LATTER (vocalist): "I can't remember buying records by anyone at that time, or listening to the radio, so I guess I only listened to bands we played gigs with. The only influence other than the obvious one of CRASS would have been REMA REMA and their love -- like me -- of feedback. My ears are paying for it now!"

KEVIN HUNTER (guitarist): "Personally, I listened to pretty much anything but anarcho stuff at the time of "Strive," although I thought THE SYSTEM were really great. Far more listenable than the majority of UK anarcho bands. I did hear some US bands, I bought FLIPPER's "Ha Ha Ha" single after hearing Peel play it, and I loved it. In the main I preferred hook-based songs, and I was into UK bands such as WASTED YOUTH, SOUTHERN DEATH CULT, DANSE SOCIETY and BAUHAUS. I loved the fact that Danny Ash of Bauhaus got weird squealing sounds out of his guitar. He also looked fabulous, but that's by-the-by."

-- THE QUIETUS, "The Fun Is Not Over: FLUX OF PINK INDIANS Interviewed," by Neil Macdonald , September 13th, 2013

Sources: www.picuki.com/profile/fortbraggmagazine, https://thequietus.com/articles/13352-flux-of-pink-indians-interview, & Listen and Understand (blogspot).

[metamatar]

have had this discussion with comrades elsewhere but anarchists are the primary vehicle for left energy only in the anglosphere, which can be attributed both to historic (cold war destruction of institutional power) and ongoing anticommunism (you cannot be granted a us visa for eg if you belong to an official communist party.) as well as the likelihood of high control electoral parties without a path to power to degenerate into cult behaviour. all the vaunted exciting organising that is associated with anarchists in the united states — foodbanks and fascist defense is often done by party cadre of so called communist parties in india all the time. movement politics is contigent on historic factors that aren't just about ideology but also about strategy. indian anarchism for eg is mostly academic or its reactionary conservatism in thrall with the gandhian valorisation of the village.

[pissmoon]

The thing that boggles my mind about 'punk is about ideology not music' ass takes is. Ok lets pretend all punk is anarcho-punk and a lot of classic/proto punk bands werent right wing or racist assholes and nationalist skinhead movement didnt come from punk and lets pretend there is one singular Punk Ideology that is universal to all local scenes and micro subgenres worldwide. Sure. But even if we do that then how is that 'ideology' something that just happened to be there independently from music and music was an irrelevant factor to it. And something that can be separated from the music at all. Like the fact that a bunch of teenagers who listened to crass got really into anarchism probably had nothing to do with the fact that they listened to crass and rudimentary peni and flux of pink indians and their lyrics, right?

[sharpened--edges]

[S]uturing together [Emma] Goldman and [Voltairine] de Cleyre […] ignores the important differences they had in their analysis of the US state and its treatment of Native peoples. Goldman, for example, once declared that “the only true Americans were the native Indians . . . who were cruelly robbed of their land and happiness by the ancestors of those who now rule the country,” and noted, “I should think myself disgraced had my ancestors been amongst those who mercilessly slaughtered the Indians wholesale, pretending to do so in the name of civilization.” De Cleyre’s “Anarchism and American Traditions,” written only four years before her death, offered a different estimation of the founding of the United States. In it, she insists on the “fundamental likeness between the Revolutionary Republicans and the Anarchists,” lauding the “Boston Tea Party Indians,” as well as citing Thomas Jefferson’s 1787 letter to James Madison in which he laid out the three modes under which societies exist under government, of which “without government, as among our Indians” is the first. In “Breaking the Chains,” she also lamented that “if the colonists had not resorted to direct actions, their scalps would have been taken by the Indians a year sooner.” Creating an anarchist feminist genealogical tradition that parallels these thinkers as progenitors neglects these disparate approaches to the history of settlement, eclipsing the settler structure of de Cleyre’s estimation of American anarchism and its continued influence in anarchist feminism in the contemporary moment.

Theresa Warburton, Other Worlds Here: Honoring Native Women’s Writing in Contemporary Anarchist Movements (Northwestern University Press, 2021), p. 96.

[dailyanarchistposts]

UGL: Ok, let us start with the basic things like the project itself. What is it?

TSU: Okay, well, the scarlet underground’s got three parts of the project—the first part of course is the immediate mutual aid that we need to be using as a direct action for the rural community where we’re based. So what we’re doing is 1. spreading awareness, something the state shoould have done long ago aand because of which most people dont get why they need masks, etc 2. making and giving out free masks and 3. delivering products like rice, daal (lentils), soybeans and sanitizers etc to the poorest of the villages here, who are Lodhas and Santhals, indigienous peoples of India. After the lockdown is over and by the time it’s december we’re planning on building a community centre which will a ct as a school for permaculture, and also as a health clinic and legal aid that would be built in a land that the collective will buy together, and we’re planning to figure out the contours and dig swales to hold the rainwater and basically practic e permaculture there and the idea is that once the locals see the difference between permaulture and monoculture, they’ll be changing the way they grow plants too. The other bit is the other plan is to build a shallow well during december (or maybe even later, but before summer) because if the rains dont come then the farmers lose all their paddy and shallow wells will help them be able to harvest rice all year round. Okay, the last thing is to build another community centre in calcutta which is around 3 hours away, a sort of part library and part free hostel and soup kitchen, for the unemplyed and the homeless. It also gives us space to bring in volunteers let more people know about our permaculture project in jhargram, among other information that would be more political. Like there’s a sponge iron factory here and we’ll need to begin organising people here to fight them. The last time the leader of the protest was found hanging from a tree in the jungle. So yeah, it’s pretty dark. Now the thing is we need people to contribute as a show of solidarity and not charity—which most people obviously don’t get, so international groups like FAU from germany are helping us, and then there are comrades here who helped us too but they can’t really afford so much (even 10,000 rupees is a lot for us). I haven’t added the Calcutta plans there because we’re planning to do that once Flo and other comrades from abroad get here in december. Most of the TSU right now is just farmers, local workers, students and anarchists: all in all i would say 10 people, out of which 3 are in Calcutta right now. Hence everything is being done by the 7 of us at the moment, and another farmer, who’s a commie, wants to join so we’ll be talking to them soon about it. Next week we’re hoping to get enough funds go to Aulgeria which is an adivasi village, and begin our work with them.

UGL: So pretty much you are building a commune from the start and it’s a pretty good start. My second question is, how did you folks came up with this project? Did you have land from the beginning or had to purchase?

TSU: My family used to be liberal land owners until my grandfather became a commie, so we have land here which we bought from anglo-indians who were leaving during india’s partition and since my whole family is leftist, we’ve kept that praxis alive, which is why my mother wants to be a part of this too and doesn’t mind us working from here—in fact she’s full of ideas The land that we wish to turn into the commune is a literal forest—-it’s next to a forest reserve and is full of sal trees among other fruit trees etc, so there will be a lot of work to be done once that begins. But the main, immediate work right now is the covid-19 mutual aid drive, for which we’re raising funds. Yesterday the cops beat up and humiliated locals in the village for not wearing masks, for example. So right now it’s imperative that we give out free masks to as many families as possible and spread awareness about covid—--one of our comrade’s already made posters for it so that’s what we’ll be doing this week, printing up the posters and pamphlets and spreading them around along with the masks By next week if we get enough funds we’ll go to aulgeria, where we basically buy the rice they harvest and distribute it to thepeople and then also get them the rest of the products and soap and sanitizer, etc. We’ll document the whole thing too, so you’ll get to see the aid work once it begins

UGL: What is the name of the town your project’s taking place?

TSU: It’s actually a village, but it’s close to Jhargram. It’s within the jhargram district. This place is called Niribili, you can find it on google, my mother and father used to run it as a homestay (father died of covid last november). The village is called Garh Salboni. Anyway, until we get enough money to buy our own acres of land, we’ll have to use this land as our base, which is fine by the collective as well as the “owners” because of the similarities in ideologies

UGL: That’s pretty nice. How do the locals think of what you’re doing. Have you recruited any new members yet?

TSU: Well out of the 7 of us working here, 3 are locals and there’s another one joining. The local folk are pleased regarding our project—it’s the political parties within the villages that often try to say that the mutual aid work was done by them etc but this sort of direct action always seems to have a positive impact in my experience. There’s also another man called kabir who will possibly join us—i’m waiting to meet him once his work gets over in a few days. So yeah, we’re really trying to make this as local as possible, found that to be the best way to promote solidarity and the idea of autonomy.

UGL: Seems like your project is a flame of hope in a world of darkness. Do you cooperate with other collectives? Both on national and international level I mean.

TSU: We cooperate with FAU germany who has helped us a lot. IWW England hasn’t really helped, but when have the British ever helped Indians? Many anarchists, on individual level, cooperate with us, but it’s mostly been FAU who helped us a lot with funds; and on national level there are individuals that contribute through either work or funds but they aren’t many. We’re trying to be more in touch with Araj and BASO which are based in Bangladesh, but that’s still in its embryo as it were,but we haven’t had the opportunity as of yet to cooperate with anarchist collectives from Greece or Spain or Latin America.

UGL: Glad to hear the FAU is helping, do they plan on making a visit down there? As for the Bangla comrades, please tell me more about them. I know nothing about autonomia and anarchism in Bangladesh.

TSU: I don’t know much to be honest, but there are way more anarchist groups in Bangladesh (BASO is a syndicalist union), Araj I think is an anarchist co-op. Araj basically means Stateless in Bangla.

UGL: We should confederate and help each other. With this interview I plan on making Greek comrades learn of you. However geography also plays it’s role and it’s a good thing you came in contact with Bangla comrades. How about Pakistan though? All of us here would love nothing more than to confederate with your group! We’d love to know more about it too, and maybe we could visit and learn from each other in the future. Well I’m not very well versed with Pakistani anarchist groups—-the demonization of the people there is enough to shield what is really happening there. I’m sure there are groups there, but I’m guessing they have to be very secretive because of the State and also religious fundamentalism. A Pakistani anarchist once wanted to meet me, he had even arrived here but he was made to go to the police station every day and was basically harassed so much that he literally cried for a long time and just left for Pakistan. I’ve been in touch with Food Not Bombs in the Phillipines though, they’re very very cool and really figured out their own way of reaching out to peoplethrough punk concerts for example.

UGL: how will you proceed after completing the Kolkata project? Do you plan on creating a network of communes based on solidarity within India?

TSU: Yeah that’s our basic plan. So in much the same way we try to influence different people in cities through agitprop, seminars and volunteer work what anarchism and mutual aid really means, and then help them organise their own co-op or commune, which i think is important because doing it the first few times, you’ll fail for sure. But you’ll still learn so many things iut of it and bit by bit you can perfect your flow. If everything works out well then i’m hoping that by 2040 (when climate change will most definitely become extremely destructive, something we can’t even fathom as a species) that we will have these communes set together as a federation where we’re always cooperating and figuring out problems autonomously instead of hoping that the chief minister notices that your whole village is starving and devoid of any paddy. But yeah that’s just a dream until we manage to stick to our own plan to make a commune. I think once we start the community centre both in Salboni and in Kolkata, things will start flowing. We’re still trying to figure out where we can make money (as a co-op, to support ourselves) or if our production isenough. We’ll figure something out. Up til december none of this is going to happen, we’re only going to be working in villages in the jhargram district with food and supplies, free masks and hold awareness campaigns, etc.

UGL: I see a lot of similarity between yours and ours project, especially now that you’ve mentioned climate change. You earlier talked of co-ops farms and permaculture as far as I know Indian plains are pretty suitable for farming. Do you plan on starting more farms?

TSU: We love permaculture. That’s what we’re trying to do in the forest here! I’ve obviously never learnt it anywhere but I’ve been trying to learn about it and read about it, and I’ve practised with companion plants and some other tactics, it’s amazing how different permaculture can make your forest. Flo only told me that you’re green anarchists, so I gathered you were probably practicing permaculture, so yeah, I got pretty excited. I’d love to know more about what you do and about your farm and your experiences.

UGL: Well, I’m not an anarchist, I’m an autonomist that has been influenced by the anti-civ and green anarchists currents. The rest of the folk is mostly composed of green anarchist comrades. We’ve started working on the farms from early November and have good progress since then. Right now we’re waiting for the crops to be ready and a portion of them will be distributed among poor proletarian folk. Permaculture saved us a lot of cash and we’re working also on food forests and wood cabins where people can be hosted. We also practice animal herding, what about you?

TSU: I’m an anarchist, I’ve been heavily influenced by kropotkin, camus and goldman, and bhagat singh, who was an indian revolutionary. I’ve always been torn between red and green anarchism, because to me climate change has always been the biggest cause for radical change and the ones responsible for it are the capitalists. so i’ve worked wth MLs, maoists and we had our own zine and collective called Eyezine, after which there was Kaloberal Collective, which failed again, and then in 2020 we started People’s Solidarit Collective, which was a mutual-aid collective, which basically turned into The Scarlet Underground. So this project is a mixture of black and green and black and red, one could say. We’ve had some cows before, now we have lots of chickens and dogs. And elephants; Lots of them here now, to eat the mangoes and jackfruits.

UGL: That’s pretty cool. So you’ve got some past from which you can use the reputation to have the project grow in numbers and quality. Eggs, milk and cheese can be good and nutritious source of food for the poor folk. I see that you activities are pretty much like ours, rural-based. However, since you plan on expanding towards urban centers, how will you proceed there? We thought of creating vertical gardens on squats, but nothing more than that. How about you?

TSU: Unfortunately here in urban areas it costs a fortune to get a house with land to use. At best I think it will have to be an indoor community garden where we practice permaculture but on big plastic or clay circular vats. That way whoever enters the community centre leaves with some idea and maybe curiosity about permaculture.

UGL: What about squats?

TSU: Squats are difficult in Calcutta, they’re usually taken up by homeless people, however we could cooperate it with them and provide them with food. Problem is that it’s much harder to do your daily work because the police here will beat you up.

UGL: I see. Those squats in Calcutta, are they located in the slums? Is there a lot of police in the region?

TSU: Loads of them. There are a lot of protesters in the region tooyeah but they make those houses themselves in the slums the state does fuckall for them or any NGO.

UGL: We hope your project goes well. We will proceed with the confederation and let us hope that more collectives will join us into creating a global network of solidarity. Cheers to you comrade!

TSU: Cheers to you!

[sivavakkiyar]

re: meta’s post, I do have this suspicion that the specter of Gandhism (with its inherent adoration and assertion of the Indian village) has a long history of influence in *Western* anarchism and liberal-leftism, and that this hasn’t really been excavated

[nando161mando]

[argyrocratie]

"I define a strong tie as a tie that 1. cannot be dissolved by a unilateral decision of one of the parties, 2. endures until death and beyond, 3. is enforced by an external agency, not the parties themselves.

In this sense love or friendship are weak, citizenship or loyalty to a nation are strong. We tend to be fooled by the habit of disguising weak ties under the appearance of strong ties (“love beyond death”, “friends forever”, etc.), but they are not the same. A quick look at the obvious personal experience of everyman confirms this view easily. Weak and strong ties pass for each other in the rhetoric of noble sentiments (marriage as a life‐long contract or love for one’s “motherland”).

It appears that strong ties of a personal nature were predominantly displayed at a certain historical stage, under the form of collective killings of followers, what Testart has analyzed and brilliantly theorized under the name of “les morts d’accompagnement” (Testart 2004). Archaeological evidence of mass graves predating the birth of great empires, such as Rome or China, tells the story of a particular practice observed around the world: slaves, servants, followers, dependants, consorts and familiars (including horses) were put to death after the demise of a prominent person or man of high status. If we follow Testart (id.) these deaths are a clear sign that personal links of loyalty and fidelity (“fidélité personnelle”) were institutionalized, leading to the killing or self‐sacrifice of dependents and followers.

Loyalty to a person until death and beyond became in many places around the world an institution.

It is only this kind of personal loyalty, together with the widespread development of slavery and debt‐bondage in primitive and pre‐state societies that led to the formation of early states. These were nothing but transference of strong ties between persons, to strong ties between subjects and rulers and, later on, between citizens and nation. Strong ties once internalized make tyranny acceptable as La Boétie told us five hundred years ago in his aptly entitled essay “De la Servitude Volontaire”.

Anarchic and open‐aggregated communities observed by ethnographers do not put any premium on such ties. They display loyalty and trust to a high degree but very rarely to the point of self‐sacrifice and death outside the domestic family. Instead they rely on weak ties, like those of friendship and partnership. Weak ties are, and probably were in a majority of pre‐Neolithic communities, the material with which communities were built. These ties entail a continual negotiation between partners and consociates, leading to frequent and repeated fission and fusion of groups, bands, local settlements and other temporary forms of association (Dentan 1992). Weak ties bind people together but do not weld them together. They permit solidarity and cooperation, occasionally create intense feelings, but are not forever, and at any moment anyone can and may shake them loose. They imply no long‐term commitment. They must match certain requirements and obey what I have called “conditions of felicity” (Macdonald 2008 b, 2009, in press c)."

-Charles J­H Macdonald, “Can anarchism be a critical point in the new anthropological imagination? Contributions of anarchy and anarchism to social theory.” (2010)

_ _ _

"One could object that strong ties exist, since they exist within the Palawan domestic family: one cannot ever deny a relationship to one’s parents. A mother will always be a mother. This statement however is not true in all respects. Palawan and Semai people share with North American Indians and Inuits a belief in the autonomous agency of very small children, including infants. Actually the Inuit (Saladin d’Anglure 1986) and some Indian cultures like the Mohave (Devereux 1961) perceive of agency and autonomy in unborn babies*.

(*The theme of intrauterine awareness and intrauterine memories is highly developed in Inuit culture (Saladin d’Anglure 1986) and Mohave people think that still-born babies are babies who, in the fetal stage, have decided not be born. They are then counted as suicides! (Devereux 1981).)

Against this ideological backdrop one understands better why Palawan people may consider a baby’s repeated illnesses as expressing a rejection of the baby’s parents. New parents are then selected and will become the baby’s true parents. The saying that one does not choose one’s parents is not true in this case. The fact that a mother-child tie can be denied is proof that even the strongest possible kinship tie (the only one, with same mother sibling, predicated on a tangible biological reality) can be culturally contingent. Another widespread institution in this culture area that points to a similar idea is adoption. The notion that a strong tie (mother-child) can be transferred is very much like saying that the tie is weak in the sense defined above."

-Charles JH Macdonald, “Kinship and fellowship among the palawan”

The reason I can tell that on some bone-deep and fundamental level I am temperamentally a liberal is that, like -

Even if all the wonky neo-trad arguments about the declining marriage rate and the collapse in church attendance/thick inherited community obligations and etc etc were entirely correct on the object level and (to the first approximation) everyone really would be happier and more fulfilled if we ended no-fault divorce and brought back shotgun weddings and arranged marriages -

My incredibly powerful visceral reaction is no, not worth it. The dissolution of all unchosen bonds is a terminal value to be pursued for its own sake. You are a citizen of a the world and a cousin to every living soul, all else is (should be) as fleeting and contingent as your passions and whims. Concessions to reality on this are purely temporary and pragmatic.

[livesanskrit]

Send from Sansgreet Android App. Sanskrit greetings app from team @livesanskrit .

It's the first Android app for sending @sanskrit greetings. Download app from https://livesanskrit.com/sansgreet

Bhagat Singh.

Bhagat Singh (27 September 1907 – 23 March 1931) was a charismatic Indian revolutionary who participated in the mistaken murder of a junior British police officer in what was to be retaliation for the death of an Indian nationalist. He later took part in a largely symbolic bombing of the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi and a hunger strike in jail, which—on the back of sympathetic coverage in Indian-owned newspapers—turned him into a household name in Punjab region, and after his execution at age 23 into a martyr and folk hero in Northern India. Borrowing ideas from Bolshevism and anarchism, he electrified a growing militancy in India in the 1930s, and prompted urgent introspection within the Indian National Congress's nonviolent but eventually successful campaign for India's independence.

#sansgreet #sanskritgreetings #greetingsinsanskrit #sanskritquotes #sanskritthoughts #emergingsanskrit #sanskrittrends #trendsinsanskrit #livesanskrit #sanskritlanguage #sanskritlove #sanskritdailyquotes #sanskritdailythoughts #sanskrit #samskrit #resanskrit #indianmartyrs #freedomfighters #indianfreedomfighter #indianheroes #merabharathmahan #celebratingsanskrit #shivramharirajguru #rajguru #bhagathsingh #sukhdev #vandemataram #legends #inquilabzindabad #celebratingsanskrit

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

ANARCHO MEETS APOCALYPSE PUNK -- A COLLISON COURSE IN FRONT PAGE COVERAGE.

PIC INFO: Spotlight on DISCHARGE meets CRASS front page cover art to UK anarcho punk zine "Guilty of What?" #1, created and published by Chris Low of Scotland.

DIY CONSPIRACY: "What was the importance of zines in the development and evolution of the anarcho-punk scene? Can you talk about your own zines in the early ‘80s and the way you managed to synthesize the ideas of punk and anarchism through zine publishing?"

CHRIS LOW: "Zines were absolutely integral to the evolution of the anarcho-punk scene. They were the very lifeblood and communication network of the movement and the means by which ideas were organically developed and disseminated in the pre-internet age.

I produced three issues of my zine, "Guilty of What?" in 1982 to ‘83 which were probably the halcyon years of anarcho-punk. In terms of “synthesising” anarchism and punk, the name I chose for the zine was an almost unconscious attempt to do this, given “Guilty of What?” was both the slogan on a Sid Vicious badge I had following his arrest for murdering Nancy Spungen and also the title of an article I had seen in a copy of "Black Flag" or "Freedom" magazine about the Persons Unknown trial of anarchists facing imprisonment on bomb-making conspiracy charges.

I must say my zine was fairly typical of anarcho zines back then and by issue three was focusing near exclusively on the scene and its themes—articles about vivisection, the arms race, conscription, apartheid etc., together with interviews with CRASS, CONFLICT, FLUX OF PINK INDIANS, DISCHARGE, and the other big name anarcho bands du jour — including one of NAPALM DEATH’s first ever write-ups as myself and founder members Nick and Miles, who were also similarly aged to me and also producing zines, had started communicating around the time NAPALM DEATH were started as well as THE ALTERNATIVE, a Dunfermline band often described as “The Scottish CRASS.""

-- DIY CONSPIRACY, "Rethinking the Legacy of Anarcho-Punk Zines: An Interview with Chris Low," published August 21, 2021

Dis nightmare still @$!*#&% continues!!

Source: https://diyconspiracy.net/chris-low-anarcho-punk.