Category: Events

For our twenty first reading group we will be reading Social Anarchism and Organisation by the Anarchist Federation of Rio de Janeiro (FARJ). We also have some additional suggested short readings about Platformism and the arguments around it to go along with the booklet. As FARJ describes the booklet:

The first Congress of the FARJ was held with the principal objective of deepening our reflections on the question of organisation and formalising them into a programme. This debate has been happening within our organisation since 2003. We have produced theoretical materials, established our thinking, learned from the successes and mistakes of our political practice it was becoming increasingly necessary to further the debate and to formalise it, spreading this knowledge both internally and externally. The document “Social Anarchism and Organisation” formalises our positions after all these reflections. More than a purely theoretical document, it reflects the conclusions realised after five years of practical application of anarchism in the social struggles of our people. The document is divided into 16 parts. It has already been published in Portuguese in a book co-published between Faísca and the FARJ.

A free version of Social Anarchism and Organisation can be found at the Anarchist Library here. While this is the main reading, the following article/essay length pieces will also be helpful in understanding some of the historical arguments within the anarchist movement that are relevant to Social Anarchism and Organisation:
Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists – Reflections on what went wrong for anarchism in the Russian Revolution and how to prevent it from happening again, which would lead to platformist anarchism
A Reply to the Platform – A response to the above, which would lead to synthesist anarchism of the kind still championed by the French anarchist federation.
A Reply to Anarchism’s Confusionists – A plaftformist response to the synthesist critique.
About the Platform – An exchange between Makhno and Malatesta about the platform.

Our friends at Freedom Press here host the reading group for free, so please support them by using them for your supply of radical books and zines.

The reading group will be meeting on Tuesday the 26th of May, 19:00, at Freedom Bookshop, 84b Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX. You are welcome to come and join in the discussion even if you have not finished the reading.

For our twentieth reading group we will be reading How Nonviolence Protects The State by Peter Gelderloos. From the blurb:

Since the civil rights era, the doctrine of nonviolence has enjoyed near-universal acceptance by the US Left. Today protest is often shaped by cooperation with state authorities–even organizers of rallies against police brutality apply for police permits, and anti-imperialists usually stop short of supporting self-defense and armed resistance. How Nonviolence Protects the State challenges the belief that nonviolence is the only way to fight for a better world. In a call bound to stir controversy and lively debate, Peter Gelderloos invites activists to consider diverse tactics, passionately arguing that exclusive nonviolence often acts to reinforce the same structures of oppression that activists seek to overthrow.

A free version of How Nonviolence Protects The State can be found at the Anarchist Library here and our friends at Freedom Press here have offered a 10% discount on physical copies for the reading group. Just quote “London SolFed Reading Group” or pop into Freedom for your general radical book buying needs.

The reading group will be meeting on Tuesday the 28th of April, 19:00, at Freedom Bookshop, 84b Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX. You are welcome to come and join in the discussion even if you have not finished the reading.

For out 19th reading group we will be doing something a little different; instead of reading a book we will be reading a set of articles suggested by different members of the reading group.

The articles chosen have been deliberately selected to give differing and conflicting perspectives on organising and resisting in the workplace in order to provoke discussion on the topic.

The article we are reading will be:
Anarcho-Synidcalism by Tom Wetzel – A short introduction to modern anarcho-syndicalism.
Trade Unionism by Anton Pannekoek – A short critique of trades unions/introduction to council communism.
Death to Rank and Filism! by pre-Proletarian Gob – A critique of rank and file organising in the British postal service in the 90s.
Dare to be a Daniel by Wilf McCartney – A short history of one the early British syndicalist unions from 1905 to the first world war.
A Critique of Syndicalist Methods by Alfredo Bonanno – A Longer piece that is a critique of syndicalism from an insurrectionary vantage point.
Strategy & Struggle by SolFed – A Longer piece that is an internal debate within the anarcho-syndicalist Solidarity Federation.

Our friends at Freedom Press here host the reading group for free, so please support them by using them for your supply of radical books and zines.

The reading group will be meeting on Tuesday the 31st of March, 19:00, at Freedom Bookshop, 84b Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX. You are welcome to come and join in the discussion even if you have not finished the reading.