Anti-fascism in the 21st century: against collaboration with the state
Part four of a series exploring anti-fascism from a radical, working class perspective discusses why working with the state is viewed by many as counterproductive. In their founding statement, militant antifascist organisation Antifa say that they “will not work with, accept information from, nor pass information to the magazine Searchlight.” On the other hand, liberal … Read more
Killing and dying for “the old lie”
Ninety one years ago today, at 11:00am, the guns fell silent on the Western Front. Not two minutes earlier, George Lawrence Price became the last Commonwealth casualty of the Great War after being shot in the heart by a German sniper. Up to 16 million people had fallen before him. The war was a case … Read more
The case against borders
Anarchy, by its very definition, requires that there be no borders. If there is no state, no unjust or illegitimate hierarchy imposing its will on a population, by what criteria do you even define a border? Clearly, in a truly free society, there is no justification for using some pre-determined criteria – be they racial … Read more
Fascism and the “Propaganda Model”
In their 1988 book Manufacturing Consent: the Political Economy of Mass Media, Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman sketch out a “propaganda model” of media control. The basic thesis is that the mass media in the west, particularly the United States, serves a very specific propaganda function. Through the mechanisms of the capitalist “free” market, rather … Read more
“Support our troops” – apologism for the crimes of war
In the wake of the more recent developments in the Afghanistan war, which I’ve commented on at length in Truth, Reason & Liberty, I received – for a second time – a spam email that has been circulating about the military and the supposed need to “support our troops.” It reads like this: You stay … Read more
The folly of patriotism
In the essay Patriotism: Menace to Liberty, Emma Goldman tells us that “Patriotism … is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit.” There is considerable weight to the truth of this statement. Those … Read more
Are you an anarchist?
With the the G20 summit and the massive protests in response to it, which I’ve covered in-depth in Truth, Reason & Liberty, we find the media for once using the term “anarchists” to describe people who actually hold to anarchic ideals. Typically, the media definition of “anarchy” and “anarchists” are far detatched from their true … Read more
