Authorities link 100 acts of vandalism and arson to activists but anarchists claim city’s alternative lifestyles are real target

"There is another myth that needs to be exploded -- the myth that social revolutions are made by tightly disciplined cadres, guided by a highly centralized leadership. All the great social revolutions are the work of deep-seated historic forces and contradictions to which the revolutionary and his organization contributes very little and, in most cases, completely misjudges, The revolutions themselves break out spontaneously. [...] If a revolutionary organization is not structured to dissolve into the popular forms created by the revolution once its function as a catalyst is completed; if its own forms are not similar to the libertarian society it seeks to create, so that it can disappear into the revolutionary forms of the future -- then the organization becomes a vehicle for carrying the forms of the past into the revolution. It becomes a self perpetuating organism, a state machine that, far from "withering away", perpetuates all the archaic conditions for its own existence."

Here's a blogger who does not like anarchism, does like making fun of anarchists, is a good writer, and has posted a nice list of books critical of anarchism which I should read some day.

Some sober musings on the libertarian Kurdish struggle.

Some books to look at.

Janet Reitman does a great job telling the story of Jeremy Hammond in this Rolling Stone article. It's difficult for me to contain my anger and disappointment when I hear about people like Jeremy being imprisoned.

"The Circled A is a weekly Anarchist radio show." Looks like they have several interesting episodes.

"In 1910, she was accused of treason by the Japanese government for her alleged involvement in what became known as the Kotoku incident, aimed at the assassination of Emperor Meiji. She was the first woman with the status of political prisoner to be executed in the history of modern Japan."

Another good response to Chris Hedges' old article against Occupy Oakland's black bloc that I just came across.

"Mikhail Bakunin, an anarchist born in Russia 200 years ago, is being investigated by the Rio de Janeiro police under the suspicion that he is participating in protests against the World Cup and social injustice. Police suspect Bakunin of participating in “vandalism acts during protests.”"

This article reports that Öcalan, the founder of PKK, has moved towards anarchism while in prison (after reading Murray Bookchin, apparently)... but I'm still getting a pretty strong Marxist-Leninst cult vibe from their website (http://www.pkkonline.com/en/).

Here's a quote from a 2012 interview with members of the Kurdistan Anarchist Forum:

"We are aware that Ocalan’s ideas have changed since he has been in prison. But we are not very optimistic about these changes. Also these changes have not, at least for the time being, been reflected in practice or organisationally in the PKK and PJAK. It is certainly true that the PKK has got many followers among the Kurdish people and have a big impact on Kurdish mass movements. They also talk about federalism. But none of this makes them in any way Anarchist organisations, nor does it make them compatible with Anarchism. They are, in fact, as far as one can get from Anarchists and Anarchism because Ocalan, first has not given up his authority and dominance over the mass movement, and second, they are still advocating nationalism and patriotism."

Still, anyone who would defy Turkish borders in order to resist ISIS sounds okay to me.

Another view of the Ukraine situation after the Odessa tragedy. This is the most lucid analysis I've read, and it seems to be rather balanced. The author (who is not Ukrainian) doesn't think the Fascists were able to convert Maidan into any real gains, and emphasizes that the thing to do now is stay out of conflicts on either side as the protests devolve toward civil war:

"However, none of the fears of «fascist takeover» have materialized. Fascists gained very little real power, and in Ukraine their historical role will now be that of stormtroopers for liberal reforms demanded by the IMF and the European Union — that is, pension cuts, an up to five times increase in consumer gas prices, and others. Fascism in Ukraine has a powerful tradition, but it has been incapable of proceeding with its own agenda in the revolutionary wave. ...

"Whereas it may occasionally be worth it to swallow tear gas or to feel the police baton for a bourgeois revolution, it makes no sense at all to die in a civil war between two equally bourgeois and nationalist sides. It would not be another Maidan but something completely different. No blood, anarchist or otherwise, should spill due to this stupidity."

This was written by a kid who was convicted for his part in Seattle's May Day 2012 riots. It amounts more to a list of socioeconomic facts than to an argument, but it is articulate and interesting for its perspective if nothing else.

Fascists and Pro-Russia Stalinists/conservatives are killing each other in Ukraine. Nobody is going to win. Here is AWU's analysis:

"The final result of such policies will be a civil war in Ukraine, which will mean an ultimate catastrophe for the working class. ... We can see that this scenario is being pushed forward by the alliance of various right-wing groups, nazis, conservatives and Stalinists. ... The cure is well-known: we should realize our own class interests, organize at workplaces and direct our rage against the real enemy, not at each other. In days like these global workers’ solidarity means very much. The global working class is doomed to eliminate itself: either in the process of social revolution and construction of a classless society or in the process of a barbaric all-out war."

“My enemies in the South States consisted of those who oppressed the black-slave. My enemies in the North are among those who would perpetuate the slavery of the wage-slave. My whole life has been sober & industrious; was never under the influence of liquor, was never arrested for any offense, & voluntarily surrendered for trial in the present case.”

"let me assure you I die happy on the gallows, so confident am I that the hundreds and thousands to whom I have spoken will remember my words; and when you shall have hanged us, then—mark my words—they will do the bombthrowing! In this hope do I say to you: I despise you. I despise your order, your laws, your force-propped authority. Hang me for it!"

More readable link: https://www.readability.com/articles/pbic99nb

Several historians discuss the impact of the Haymarket bombing.

"Haymarket left a lasting stigma on radical movements. Ever since, the public has imagined anarchists as bomb-throwing fiends. Tensions were already running high between wealthy business owners and poor workers in Chicago, but Haymarket made them even worse. Historians say it set back the labor movement for decades."

I don't know what direct democracy is, but it sounds tedious.