Hey all, I started my dive into anarchism a little over a year ago and I’ve read a lot of the anarchy/socialism 101 type books but I’m starting to find a lot of it repetitive. I’m looking for suggestions to deepen my understanding of anarchism and libertarian socialism. Especially praxis and tactics, a lot of theory that I’ve come across doesn’t really get into the weeds about applying it, and as someone in an area with no leftist orgs to speak of (outside of a small DSA chapter), I don’t have anyone local to go to in order to learn from.
I want to start putting all of this knowledge to use in my area but I’m not 100% sure where to start or how to avoid some of the pitfalls of organizing. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
Hahaha. Sorry, I didn’t realize I was replying to OP - I took that comment as being someone’s suggestions to you. In that case I’m afraid I don’t have much to offer. As I had said in my earlier comment my grasp on anarchist literature these days is a bit spotty (though I’m hoping to start freshening up on it, so I look forward to other replies.)
From what I recall, however, most anarchist writers seem to have an unfortunate tendency to lean more on theory than practice. Furthermore, a lot of the foundational stuff was written in the 19th century, so their practical suggestions are quite often not super applicable to the modern context.
All good! I have read some more modern texts from FARJ (an especifist org in Brazil), some stuff on zapatismo, and I have more modern texts on the back log. Stuff from Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin and a handful of queer anarchist theorists as well. There’s a boatload of modern theory floating around out there, it’s just time consuming to parse through. I also wanted to get “the classics” out of the way to have a good foundation and historical context to pull from when reading more modern work
Very cool! I’ll have to find some time to read up on some more modern stuff. I vaguely remember one really good modern book from when I went back to finish a poli sci degree 5ish years ago, but unfortunately don’t remember the name or author. If I manage to dig it up I’ll let you know, as I recall it being quite informative.