Author Archives: b. traven

To celebrate this year’s Steal Something from Work Day, we present a critical essay on the possibilities and limitations of stealing time at work as a revolutionary practice. Our contributor is one of the countless grad students who have better odds of participating in an anarchist revolution than landing a tenure track position. Like anything stolen from work, this text bears the imprint of the context in which it was created—yet hints at what it will take to abolish that context. Thieves of time, one more effort to steal back the world!

Meanwhile: Steal Something from Work Day auf Deutsch.

Read on after the jump.

The date is December 21, 2012. There has been a lot of talk about the world ending today. Most of it is idle chatter, but this obsession with the apocalypse captures the spirit of the times, implying some latent fear—or hope—far beyond pseudo-Mayan numerology. Given the seeming defeat of the revolutionary movements of 2011 and the difficulty of imagining a post-capitalist form of life, it is not surprising that a pessimistic eschatological vision of the end of the world has so much currency today. Yet history shows that fixation on the apocalypse is simply one avatar of a force that also appears as social revolution.

So, to celebrate yet another end of the world, we wish to direct your attention to a new short film, “In the Middle of the Desert,” by Bulgarian anarchist filmmaker Hristina Vardeva, composed as a companion piece to the excellent text “Introduction to the Apocalypse.”

View film after the jump.

We have just the thing for the final weeks of the US Presidential election spectacle: a new video from our comrades Test Their Logik, “Democracy’s Bankrupt.” This anthem eloquently expresses the disillusionment with electoral democracy that is spreading around North America today. Recommended for use alongside our “Vote Here” stickers and our poster series, “What Does Democracy Mean?”

Following their debut album, “A,” Test Their Logik’s “Democracy’s Bankrupt” is the first single off their upcoming album “Be,” due to drop on December 21.

Video and lyrics after the jump.

In February 2012, as the Occupy movement tapered off, a strike broke out against austerity measures in the Québécois higher education system. Prevented from occupying buildings as it had in 2005, the student movement shifted to a strategy of economic disruption: blockading businesses, interrupting conferences, and spreading chaos in the streets. At its peak, the resulting unrest surpassed any protest movement in North America for a generation.

To counteract the media blackout, we’ve worked with participants to prepare a two-part feature:

While the Iron Is Hot, I: Student Strike & Social Revolt in Québec, Spring 2012

While the Iron Is Hot, II: Anarchist Analysis of the Revolt in Québec

In this comprehensive report, we chart the strike action by action, from its awkward beginnings through the high point of the revolt and the emergency measures with which the government attempted to suppress it. At each stage in its development, we explore why the strike assumed the forms it did, and analyze the forces competing to push it forward, suppress it, or coopt it. Like the Oakland port blockade of November 2, 2011, the strike suggests a path forward out of the strategic impasse resulting from the Occupy evictions; it also demonstrates that building a capacity for confrontation is an infrastructural project, as much as any community institution.

At nearly 30,000 words and almost 100 photos and videos, be warned that the page may take some time to load.

The next chapter of the story is about to be written: militants have called for a convergence beginning August 13, to continue the strike in the face of government repression. Stay tuned.