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.

"The Haymarket affair is generally considered significant as the origin of international May Day observances for workers."

I quite enjoyed this piece of journalism on the American libertarian movement. I liked how the author used Déjacque as the communist foil to the "libertarian" capitalists of the Cato Institute. I guess she chose him because he coined the term "libertarian," but it's good to see a crazy anarchist who was not sexist like Proudhon or already well-known like Kropotkin get some mention.

"The trial revealed that CPD infiltrators Mehmet Uygun and Nadia Chikko, known to the activists as 'Mo' and 'Gloves,' helped plan and instigate the crimes. They plied the defendants with alcohol, getting them drunk on multiple occasions, helped purchase gasoline for the Molotov cocktails, and even cut up a bandanna to use as a wick."

This sort of thing is tempting -- but it's also a lot like providing your identification before robbing a bank. Still, he's not in jail yet!

"And I was struck anew that this case was all talk, talk, talk. Church said this. Chase said that. Betterly said this (although not much.) Right up until at the prompting of the undercover officers they poured some gasoline in some beer bottles and stuffed a torn rag in the top, they hadn’t committed any crime.

"What they would have done with those “Molotov cocktails”— a scary word for a weapon that any dumb kid can make at home as many have — we’ll never know. But I will always believe the NATO 3 never posed as great a threat to the freedom of the people of Chicago as those who assigned police officers to infiltrate dissident political groups in search of potential “criminals”— and by those who chose to define those criminals as terrorists."

Judges, prosecutors, and police who invoke the fear of violence to commit their monstrous acts of violence are incredible hypocrites.

"Mexican food was also associated with anarchism and union organizing. Tamale vendors were blamed for the Christmas Day Riot of 1913, when police raided a labor rally in Los Angeles Plaza. Milam Plaza in San Antonio, where the chili queens worked in the 1920s, was a prominent recruiting ground for migrant workers. Customers could eat their chili while listening to impassioned speeches by anarcho-syndicalists of the [Industrial] Workers of the World and the Partido Liberal Mexicano."

Here is a nice online/ebook version of Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. I've started reading this on my Kindle.

A trio of essays against "anarcho-capitalism" and "national-anarchism".

Hobbes was right. Without the government monopoly on violence, life is nasty brutish and short. The moral of Takhar Province: it is the fear of the greater power of the state that keeps us in line. The moral of Beirut: injustice is better than Civil War. The moral of New York: abandoning state control is a political decision, as is reclaiming it. The moral of Basra: the return of stability will be welcomed everyone of no matter what political affiliation, except perhaps the gunmen.

“What’s Left?” features Lefty's more or less monthly columns written for the punk zine Maximumrocknroll.

I just discovered this weblog. I've read several of the essays. They are written by an ex-anarchist (slash ex-left-communist) who seems to write a lot about how they wish anarchism was better so they could still be an anarchist. It's good stuff!

This is a long video, but I thought it gave a good idea of how Trotskyists (well, at least this one) relate to anarchism.