Reformism – Dark Nights

This text, since it publication, has inspired many anarchists in their projects, proposals and practice, but it is with no sense of nostalgia that we have reprinted this booklet, rather because we realize that its central questions and critiques are more relevant than ever: how to identify the enemies of freedom, those in the ivory towers, those on the streets, those within our struggles?

“Published in May 1998 by NN editions, a publisher started only seven months earlier by some anarchists who had participated in the weekly newspaper Canenero, this booklet, has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, Dutch, German. Since then, it has nourished reflections, offered suggestions, strengthened tensions, raised doubts, as well as provoking much irritation (the concept of ‘the existent’ in particular, in its bursting totality, has proven rather indigestible for those who aspire to administer the State in any way). In its small way, At Daggers Drawn has contributed to the spread of an autonomous, insurrectional anarchist perspective. A perspective that is inherently irreducible to “small reformist steps” and not seduced by “a revolt for a few intimates to the sound of pyrotechnics and poorly crafted slogans”. Forged in the rejection of the false choice between citizenist reformism and vanguardist armed struggle, these pages assert the immediate necessity and possibility of an insurrectional poetry carried out by all. This should not be confused with pathetic political propaganda, nor with boastful and self-referential communiqués.

[…]

It is well known who the authour of this text is: no one. Born from long and continuous discussions, writing, re-writing, additions, changes, suggestions and corrections, At Daggers Drawn should belong to anyone who recognises themselves in it, just as it always should be. Like everything that is the work of no single individual, it belongs to everyone in general.”

– From the introduction of Ai ferri corti, ed. L’oro del tempo, 2015

At daggers drawn: an expression that can be traced back to a variety of historical anecdotes, commonly defining a very specific moment of a violent conflict – the crudest, in the greatest physical proximity and the closest to its end. For those choosing to not look away, nor accept, nor reproduce the miserable and tragic existent that authority imposes, conflict seems inevitable.

As power, its promises, its progress, its blackmails, keep scaring and seducing even those who speak of freedom from authority, we are still faced with the same frustration. We find, over and over, and closer and closer, anarchists making choices based on logics of convenience, efficiency, political strategy and the spotlights of the spectacle, rather than defending, no matter what, anti-authoritarian ethics. So yes, conflict also against the false critics, those who talk about freedom, but when “necessary” throw away our ideas and practices for the sake of favourable alliances, popular acceptance and a chance at a by-all-means-necessary “victory”.

So what these pages declare is permanent conflict: anti-authoritarian ethics are under permanent attack, from all sides, and if those who carry them in their hearts do not defend them, even when it’s exhausting, uncomfortable and inconvenient, their existence in space and time and memory will be relinquished to where authority wants them…

It is with the same passion and urgency that shook us the first time we read these pages that we announce a new print run, in English and German.

Available at: rupture.noblogs.org

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” →

Tag: Reformism

At Daggers Drawn… – announcing new publications at rupture distro

Against Anarcho-Liberalism and the curse of identity politics

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