An anarchist list of sources for methods of rebel practice

You're tired of getting up, every morning in front of the same wall You're tired of being like a shovel in a boring machine Same dark and same eyes out of your head Same days as a tile in the floor You're tired of seeing the same actors every night You're tired of being like a deadbeat Fluffing with it and going as far as you can Fluff with it and go where you're invited (Beyond - Fluff with it)

Why can't most young people get their own home for a lifetime's work? Why did most people dry up during the pandemic, but the fortunes of the wealthiest became significantly larger? Why do we have to work eight hours a day when it used to be possible to work less? Why is no one listening to scientists talking about the climate crisis? Why is it mostly women who make coffee at work and hardly ever say anything? Why is the existence of more than one sexual orientation and two genders a contentious topic for so many?

If questions like that confuse you, but you still think they're important, you're on the right page here. They are predominantly about our society, so I believe it is good company to know to describe them. Society is not just a collection of individuals, we should try to understand it as a whole.

Modern methods of sociology can be used to describe society. Below you'll find a few sources that relate to this, but I'll say one word of warning: this includes Marxism and class analysis. Maybe you've heard the word \x,\ and maybe you like it (it's contrarian), or you're averse to it. Either way, sociology is based on Marxist methods, that's just a fact. Originally Marxist methods are used (such as class analysis, i.e., in short, dividing society into, say, rich and poor). Nevertheless, Marxism itself may be a little too ideological. Be aware of that, and use his methods knowingly. Try to have multiple methods of analysis for each situation, and always choose the best one.

Some people find ponderous words like proletariat, dialectical materialism, or genderqueerness unnecessary and confusing: things should be explained in words that everyone understands. Other people think that using these words will lead a person into a sea of ideology and prevent him from truly understanding the world. I don't think either of those; why it's important to use long and complex words as well, and what people mean when they say them, I describe in the article here.

• If we want to achieve anything, we need to adapt our means-ends unity to our goal.
• How a society works is most determined by its social structures. (example of a social structure: patriarchy, school system, traffic regulations)
• An effective way to get a better world is through prefiguration (in the sense of building a new one in the shell of an old one).
• Hierarchies limit human freedom, so we should try to live in a society with as little hierarchical functioning as possible.
• True social change will not happen through elections; we must take extra-parliamentary action (which may involve pressure on parliament).

True social change will not happen through elections; we must take extra-parliamentary action (which may involve pressure on parliament).

Tips on how to navigate this

• Create a notebook, and write down interesting thoughts from what you've read. This is hard if you've never done it before, and you might feel like it slows down your reading time. The goal, however, is not to read as many texts as possible, but to get the most interesting ideas and learn something: and you can only learn something if you think. This process will make your own notes easier. No shame, though, if you just don't enjoy the notebooks.
• Ask for your friends' opinions about what you've learned: that way you can all improve your understanding.
• Create a notebook or file on your computer to write a list of texts you want to read in the near future.
• Don't read every text from beginning to end without thinking: some texts may be too technical, or you may have more interesting things to do. Instead, a brief glance through the text to see if it concerns a matter of interest to you. If so, they deserve more attention.
• Anarchism is a method of rebel practice. Do not try to see this here as some rhetorical exercise, but as a sincere attempt to create some better world.

Anarchism

• Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you!-a short English text from David Graeber, where key anarchist ideas are explained intuitively.
• Your politics are boring as fuck-a short English text about how the possible reason for the failure of politics is simply our boring conception, abstraction and how we don't relate it to real life.
• Czech intermittent Existence 1/2019 Discussing the Zapatistic movement in Chiapas, Mexico. It is an autonomous zone of indigenous peoples operating horizontally (i.e. not vertically, not hierarchically).
• In the cracks of capitalism, thinking outside the state and the market is a short Czech article from A2 magazine that sums up some anarchist ideas.
• The Dragon and the Hydra - English text summarizing the resistance methods of black runaway slaves in many places around the world. They seek to show that, for the purposes of their struggle, decentralised methods of combat were preferable.
• Youth Liberation - English short text introducing the idea of Youth Liberation. The point is that we often treat children in society unfreely: we beat them, put them in schools where they cannot choose what they learn, we do not allow them to leave their parents, even if they want to (and they suffer from, say, rich violence). Youth Liberation argues that this is analogous to how other power relationships operate in society, and that mistreatment of children legitimises all of this: that is why we should first try to free children.
• David Graeber speaking (English) o bullshit jobs
• David Graeber speaking (English) about debt and ways of paying
• Anark - a channel full of (propaganda) video essays

Czech Republic and Slovakia

• Condemned by failure-Slovak podcast on what systemic obstacles Roma face and why they are doomed to failure
• Divided by freedom-research by Czech Radio, which works with class analysis of the Czech Republic. However, beware: the methodology of this survey, for example, neglects (albeit numerically small) a group of people with tremendously large assets, who certainly are and have disproportionate influence in the Czech Republic
• Daniel Prokop, Blind Spots \u2014 Czech book presenting sociological methods and diagonalizing the current problems of the Czech Republic (ajaj, someone uploaded it to the ulozto server)

General Resources

• Czech Anarchist Federation website
• Anarchopac reading list by Zoe Baker (oof, reading list in the reading list, you didn't expect that much)
• crimethinc, an English website with world news and anarchist analysis (now it's French too)

Books

• David Graeber, David Wengrow \u2014 The Dawn of Everything \u2014 a book describing human history from an anthropological point of view. They're trying to disprove the idea that life in larger communities must necessarily be hierarchical, and that we've come to the status quo through some inevitable unified process. It's a book, but you can read it by chapter.
• bell hooks, Feminism Is For Everybody (Slovak: Feminizmus do vrecka) \u2014 bell hooks here describes the historical development of feminism, and at the same time its key ideas. Also the points of failure of the movement, and what we must do to make the movement more successful now.
• Allan G Johnson, The Forest and the Trees-the author explains here in practical examples the basic ideas, but mainly the methods of sociology, and why it is relevant to each of us.
• Ursula K. Le Guyn, The Dispossesed + The One Who Walks Away From Omelas - the first recommended book is a fiction describing contrasting life on two planets. One of them is similar to our own (pro-Carteran), the other operates anarchist-collectivist. At the same time, Le Guyn does not portray both societies in black and white, but in a kind of plastic way with good and bad sides. It is worth noting that I have included fiction as a source of inspiration in this list. The second thing from Le Guyn is a short story that I have here as a bonus.
• Michael Sandel, The Tyranny of Merit \u2014 an English book describing the system we live in: meritocracy. This is the idea that the most financially rewarded should be those who are most deserving. However, as the author shows, in reality our careers are influenced by the vast majority of factors beyond our control. Moreover, wealth (including, for example, education) is inherited, so that insisting on meritocracy is merely insisting on the existing unjust status quo.

Text Repositories

Library Genesis: A Russian server with about 3M books, but mostly all scientific articles. I don't give an address because it changes all the time. Most books are just here.

https://monoskop.org/Monoscope is a wiki on humanities authors and concepts, often with pdf texts in the sources...

https://archive.leftove.rs/ archive of texts of radical organizations, e.g. Black Panthers.

http://www.marxists.org/ is a database of texts from famous Marxists, but also a hub of basic concepts.

https://forpartisans.noblogs.org/

https://sacred-texts.com/ are just all sorts of holy texts.

https://archivesautonomies.org/

https://infokiosques.net/

https://www.redtexts.org/

http://www.bopsecrets.org/

https://libcom.org/

https://www.bannedthought.net/