Analysis – Dark Nights

New Zine “Words Mean Things – A Compilation of Anathema Articles” (USA)

Posted on 2026/01/24 - 2026/01/26 by darknights

This compilation is coming together in a moment when it feels that many anarchist ideas are losing their meanings. Dragged out of anarchy into leftism or activism, drained of their radical content. Mutual aid isgiving away supplies, direct action is a more aggressive form of begging, anti-fascism is reduced to publishing personal details about our enemies, attack is left to gather dust or spectacularized as a social media aesthetic.

Lining up anarchist ideas and practices is not always easy, which is no reason to lower the bar. It’s with this in mind that it felt useful to compile these articles, to clarify just how radical anarchist ideas really are, to encourage people to keep imagining and moving toward absolute hostility with authority and anarchic relations with everyone else.

https://anathema.noblogs.org/files/2026/01/wordsmeanthings_screen.pdf

“Yet Another War of Extermination” – Letter by anarchist prisoner Luca ‘Stecco’ Dolce (Italy)

Posted on 2026/01/21 - 2026/01/22 by darknights

Now that the masses all over the world have expressed their solidarity with Gaza, I’d be curious to know how social scientist Elias Canetti(1) would describe his concept of the “masses” in such a technological, warmongering and at the same time, exterminating age as ours. He says that mass society exists in the mind of human beings before it materially expresses itself. If ancient societies chose certain social and economic forms of mere subsistence, it was because they deliberately chose not to use bureaucratic or authoritarian methods: they foresaw their dangers. Our ancestors, therefore, were perfect political animals, aware and active observers of the community’s social life.

So what are these squares and streets full of people today, if in our daily lives we go back to the riverbed of a life organized and imposed by others?

Now that the “truce” in Gaza is divulged and imposed with the stamp of the army boot and the mediatic hype on the Flotilla, now that they are silencing and dampening the surge against the massacre, how to transform it into an action going beyond the manifestation and expression of opinions? Power uses human emotions as a can opener; often, the former gives its best in its “delayed reaction” empathic emotion and during “emergencies”, and it coagulates in peaks of scorn. A humanity which is nevertheless still alive despite all the efforts to atomize it. Its more progressive components are proving united in the face of the evidence of an extermination. Over the reaction timing, we should reason at length. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet understood in depth how deceitful and blackmailing the tactics of the enemies of life are, to what extent do commodities and quiet living manage to recuperate the movements, even sincere ones, at least here in Europe. In order to be more incisive and longsighted they have to doggedly overcome exactly the traps scattered over the ground of the struggle, which have the precise function of making everyone go back to the wishy-washy pen of the democratic morals, to issues such as the use of liberating violence or not, to inaction. Let’s move from emotions to self-organizing and direct action. If the roads of freedom are hindered, revolutionary movements of the past teach us opacity and going underground.

Continue reading ““Yet Another War of Extermination” – Letter by anarchist prisoner Luca ‘Stecco’ Dolce (Italy)” →

Dos publicaciones del pensamiento anárquico para libre descarga: Negazine y La Tempestad, materiales para combatir la desrealización tecnológica y la guerra global

Posted on 2026/01/08 by darknights

Hemos traducido al español dos interesantes y más que recomendadas publicaciones del pensamiento anárquico e insurreccional italiano, traducidas en más de un idioma y publicadas en más de un territorio, resultado de la inquietud, donde grupos de compañeros han tenido algo que decir sobre la realidad, enfatizando nuevamente la urgencia por destruir aquel entramado tecnológico configura un horizonte cada vez más desalentador para quienes se niegan al progreso y el control.

Gracias a que este material se dispuso para descarga en las páginas de la editorial Elephant Editions (elephanteditions.net), Edizioni Anarchismo (edizionianarchismo.net) e Il Roverscio (ilrovescio.info), hemos podido acceder a estos fascinantes análisis que continuarán propagándose en el universo anárquico hispanohablante… Continue reading “Dos publicaciones del pensamiento anárquico para libre descarga: Negazine y La Tempestad, materiales para combatir la desrealización tecnológica y la guerra global” →

June 1953 – Proletarian uprising in East Germany

Posted on 2023/06/19 by darknights

PDF

Reality of proletarian struggle versus workerist myths

It was on June 17th, 1953. Important sectors of the proletariat rose up in East Berlin before this revolt spread all over the “German Democratic Republic” and was repressed by the intervention of the Red Army (red with insurgent proletarians’ blood).

We will not here, in this short text, develop in detail how this movement expressed itself. We only insist on drawing the main forces and weaknesses, which historically recur from one struggle to another despite the particular conditions that make emerging such a struggle at a place and a moment, and not at others. Our goal is not to tell a story but to draw programmatic lessons from previous struggles for the future insurrections. Nevertheless, we invite comrades to read Cajo Brendel’s booklet “1953: The Working Class Uprising In East-Germany” (which was one of many sources of inspiration) despite the fact that we have reservations about the ideological framework (i.e. councilism) of this militant and that we criticize in the course of the present text.

This uprising, some weeks after Stalin’s death, put back on the forefront of history the visceral antagonism that opposes two social classes with antagonistic and contradictory interests and programs. And this, whatever shape the bourgeoisie takes to contain proletarians. Because it’s always with force that the proletariat imposes its existence of a class which is deprived of all and its necessity to put an end to this old world, whatever the nature of the facade restoration may be or the colour (red, white, brown…) used to repaint our exploitation. At the strongest moment of the counterrevolution, whereas our enemies robbed our flags, whereas their state proclaims itself to be a “workers’” one and they pretend to manage us in the name of the “dictatorship of the proletariat” (which in fact never existed and was replaced by their dictatorship over the proletariat), it’s the internal contradictions of the social relation that make class struggles re-emerging. Continue reading “June 1953 – Proletarian uprising in East Germany” →

325 #12 Indonesian Edition

Posted on 2022/10/30 - 2022/10/30 by darknights

We present here for the first time 325 magazine in Indonesian, translated by our Indonesian comrades & Semerdekazine.

For the Black International & conflict with the Techno Prison World.

ANTI-COPYRIGHT NETWORK

PDF: Jurnal-325-x-Semerdekazine

‘III) Class war is outdated’ – Conspiracy of Cells of Fire

Posted on 2022/05/10 - 2022/05/10 by darknights

We republish an excerpt from the CCF’s (Conspiracy of Cells of Fire) book New Urban Guerrilla on the occasion of “World Workers’ Day”, one of the few days when leftists remember to take to the streets, hold their ritual marches and speak their faded slogans. The left has never been able to fully recover from the consequences of the rise of neoliberalism and the fall of the USSR, and it never will as long as it clings to outdated and anachronistic theories and practices that struggle to cope with the rapid developments of the last few decades. The concept of ‘worker’ and ‘class struggle’ that they so glorify no longer have the same clarity and meaning that they had a century ago. The third industrial revolution, the automation it brought about and globalisation have led to the expansion of the tertiary sector at the expense of the primary and secondary sectors. For the average young worker who works in hotels and cafes, the ‘occupation of the means of production’ does not make as much sense as it would to a bachelor worker, especially when the rusty leftist rhetoric has not even managed to prevail against neoliberal standards, the doctrine of ‘there is no alternative’ and the false promises of social advancement and enrichment. The so-called class consciousness is now almost non-existent. We cannot even imagine how much more fossilized the left will look like with the arrival of the fourth industrial revolution, which is already just around the corner, and which will bring even more radical socio-economic transformations, changing and blurring even more the class dynamics and the meaning of ‘worker’.
With all that has been said about the left, it is therefore not surprising either why a ‘movement’ such as that of the a/a space, which tends to become increasingly leftist, is so alienated from population groups it is supposed to support, such as workers and minorities.
Or May Day is not the worker’s right.
May Day is sabotage, memory and consistency in the workers’ hellhole
Action and attack on the mechanisms of oppression
For anarchy and nihilism
– IO EIF

So here it is necessary to talk about society and the individual. We declare ourselves anti-socialists and have referred extensively to our conception of society. However, because we find that confusion remains in many mouths and ears producing distorted ideologies of revolutionary elitism, we for our part persist in striking down this misunderstanding.

First of all, by the term society we do not in any way exclusively define the numerical population of people. We characterize as a whole the majority framework of attitudes, traditions, morals and customs within which the processes of power are accepted. For example, the concepts of property, patriotism, religion, are pervasive social values deeply rooted in <> without the need for law enforcement and state surveillance.

Of course, the majority of society, beyond the common belief shared in the necessity of power, is at the same time divided into classes. Social classes that are not entrenched from one another, as in past centuries when natural exclusion from the upper echelons of power prevailed (pyramidal morphology based on descent and hereditary rights), but constitute categories of people based on their fluid position in production and their economic surface. Today, therefore, people are in constant class mobility due to the structure of the modern system. The participatory form of capitalism and the real or fictitious opportunities for professional development form a fluctuating scale on which petty bourgeoisie can become bosses (self-made professionals and careerists) and bosses can fall into petty bourgeoisie (company bankruptcies, failed investments). Continue reading “‘III) Class war is outdated’ – Conspiracy of Cells of Fire” →

Italy: Social Credit Score – Rome & Bologna testing new app that monitors & rewards behavior

Posted on 2022/05/03 - 2022/05/03 by darknights

In line with recommendations being laid out by the World Economic Forum and the UN 2030 Agenda, Bologna, Italy, plans to launch a social credit style app that has striking similarities with Communist China’s social credit system. The app rewards or punishes its citizens for their behavior. Dubbed “Smart Citizen Wallet,” the app will track activities such as recycling, public transportation use, and energy management.

The primary argument for the program is to “save resources” and promote climate-friendly behavior. Those displaying good behavior will collect digital coins and receive discounts at local shops based on the given scores.

The app is already active and in experimental stages in Rome and is set to go live in Bologna in Autumn. Bologna Mayor Matteo Lepore and Massimo Bugani, director of the city’s “Digital Agenda,” discussed the project at a March 29 conference. Bugani indicated the app was part of a more comprehensive effort by the city to invest in digital innovation.

In 2020, Italy and six other nations signed an agreement to become “Agile Nations” in partnership with the WEF. Besides Italy, the deal—co-organized by the OECD—includes Canada, Denmark, Japan, Singapore, UAE, and the UK and sets “each country’s commitment to creating a regulatory environment in which new ideas can thrive.” Expressly—with the Fourth Industrial Revolution front and center. Continue reading “Italy: Social Credit Score – Rome & Bologna testing new app that monitors & rewards behavior” →

Against Anarcho-Liberalism and the curse of identity politics

Posted on 2022/04/26 - 2022/04/26 by darknights

DN: We re-post this text from 2018 that we feel is still relevant and even more on an international level in the present, against the supposed ‘unquestionably oppressed’, against those identity politicians and academics who just do not comprehend their involvement in the recuperation of anarchy into a passive joke! All part of the civil anarchism & activist psychosis that is due a much updated critique that will be forthcoming in future publications.

–

Anarchism in the UK is a joke. Once symbolising hard-fought struggles for freedom, the word has been stripped bare to make way for narrow-minded, separatist and hateful identity politics by middle class activists keen to protect their own privileges. We write this leaflet to reclaim anarchism from these identity politicians.

We write as self-identified anarchists who see our roots in the political struggles of the past. We are anti-fascists, anti-racists, feminists. We want to see an end to all oppressions and we take an active part in those fights. Our starting point though is not the dense language of lefty liberal academics, but anarchism and its principles: freedom, cooperation, mutual aid, solidarity and equality for all regardless. Hierarchies of power, however they manifest, are our enemies.

Identity politics is part of the society we want to destroy.

Identity politics is not liberatory, but reformist. It is nothing but a breeding ground for aspiring middle class identity politicians. Their long-term vision is the full incorporation of traditionally oppressed groups into the hierarchical, competitive social system that is capitalism, rather than the destruction of that system. The end result is Rainbow Capitalism – a more efficient & sophisticated form of social control where everyone gets a chance to play a part! Confined to the ‘safe space’ of people like them, identity politicians become increasingly detached from the real world.

A good example is ‘queer theory’ and how it has sold out to corporate masters. The concept of queer was not long ago something subversive, suggesting indefinable sexuality, a desire to escape society’s attempts to define and study and diagnose everything, from our mental health to our sexuality. However, with little in the way of class critique, the concept was readily appropriated by identity politicians and academics to create yet another exclusive label for a cool clique that is, ironically, anything but liberatory. Increasingly, queer is a nice badge adopted by some to pretend they too are oppressed, and avoid being called out on their shit, bourgeois politics.

We don’t want hear about the next DIY event, queer night or squatter fest that excludes all but those who have the right language, dress code, or social circles.. Come back when you have something genuinely meaningful, subversive and dangerous to the status quo. Continue reading “Against Anarcho-Liberalism and the curse of identity politics” →

Against The Tide – Gustavo Rodríguez

Posted on 2021/07/15 - 2021/07/15 by darknights

-The dilemmas of the contemporary «anarchist movement» versus the instituting character of the «social movements.»¹.

«Vulgarly it is held that the «great mass» could not remain without religion; the communists extend that claim.»

Max Stirner, My Enjoyment of Myself, in The Only One and His Property.

«To see what we have in front of our noses requires a constant struggle.»

George Orwell, In front of your nose.

Contrary to what all the verbal diarrhea of post-modern neo-Leninism claims about the so-called «social movements», the novelty of these movements does not lie in the replacement of trade unions and traditional political parties, but in the motivational structure of the subjects involved; That is, in the convergence of perceptions around multiple factors (economic-socio-cultural) that nourish the collective longing for the welfare state and the labor society and, through processes of social mobilization, constitute a new institutional force that serves as a platform for the different fascisms -whether black, brown, red or whatever color they are given in order to persuade the «masses»- and paves the way for populist leaders.

Meanwhile, the social scientists (neo-Marxians and/or proto-populists) juggle a thousand and one times to semantically accommodate «institutionalization», giving the concept a one hundred and eighty degree turn so that it is grammatically instrumental for them; that is, hiding the intentions of co-optation of the struggles and forced integration to the «new» domination.

In this way, they reconceptualize «institutionalization» and define it as a «mediation» (between the so-called civil society and the regime) that redesigns the forms of participation, the mechanisms of representation and the devices of legitimization, enhancing the «transforming» character of social mobilization in total «recreation of the movementist tradition»² . In the words of the merolico mayor Boaventura de Souza Santos: showing the emancipatory horizons that they recreate as agents of social change, by participating in the construction of hegemonic ideas that drive the politicization of reality³ .

Despite this evidence, the critique of the instituting maneuver of «social movements» has been mute in our tents. The shameless silences in the face of these instituting vessels -which suffocate individual breathing in the forced gasps of the movementist ritual-, have contributed to the theoretical-practical confusion that today plagues our circles, facilitating the imposition of alien programs and the adoption of the logic of the enemy (diametrically opposed to our desires for total emancipation). Instead of drawing a crucial dividing line, which establishes the definitive separation of the instituting struggles and punctuates the consistent action of contemporary anarchic grammar, an ambiguous discourse, loaded with vague expositions and excess of positivity, has been encouraged. Continue reading “Against The Tide – Gustavo Rodríguez” →

The Artificial Reproduction of the Human: The Road of Transhumanism

Posted on 2021/07/15 - 2021/07/15 by darknights

Transhumanism and techno-sciences

The transhumanist movement began in the USA, in Silicon Valley, in the late 1980s, but if we try to track down the origin of this ideology, we find ourselves in 1883, when the term eugenics was coined by Galton, or in 1957, when Huxley gave a speech where he used the word transhumanism to describe his transcendent belief in the human, and we end up with the cybernetic paradigm which arose during Second World War in the military sector. The cybernetic paradigm, the study of control of systems, living or not living, is based on the concept of information: if everything, from the living to the inorganic world, can be reduced to an exchange of information, then every barrier and every difference between the living and the non living, between the human and the machine. And the the subject will be reduced to a sum of information items, a programme which can be deciphered and thus modified like a machine. Finally, we get to the development of genetic engineering and synthetic biology. Craig Venter, founder of Celera Genomics, after having sequenced the human genome, launched the Minimal Genome Project. Why would a company spend time and money on such simple organisms, when others were already competing to sequence the genomes of frogs, rats and chimpanzees? Right from the outset of the Genome Project, Venter’s goal had not only been to read genes or edit their DNA, but to redesign them through synthetic biology.

The ultimate aim of these processes is always the human being, this was clearly expressed by the Singularity University in a recent conference on Exponential Medicine: “We can design embryos. We can edit genes in humans. We have synthetic biology. And so we really are looking at designing future humans”.

Transhumanism is not a side effect, but the point of arrival of technological development, it is the ideology of the convergence between biotechnologies, nanotechnologies, information science and neurosciences.

Transhumanist ideology seeks to empower and implement the human through technology to achieve its biotechnological transformation: the post-human. Biology and even bodies are seen as constraints and limits to be overcome, reinforced, modified or eliminated. Before the desired biotechnological transformation or hybridisation with machines, what is being transformed is the ontological concept of human: we have never been human, we have always been cyborgs and hybrids. What is emerging is an anthropotechnical cyborg concept, where the human being is undetermined, and co-builds himself with technology, an indetermination which is technical hybridisation, where the very nature of human, his biological existence, is technological. A technical hybridisation which destroys the borders between subject and object, between nature and technique, between the living and the machine, so that everything, from nature around us to our very bodies, becomes an artefact. Continue reading “The Artificial Reproduction of the Human: The Road of Transhumanism” →