Anarchist writer, musician, and podcaster Margaret Killjoy returns to the podcast to discuss the political act of writing fiction and imagining the “ambiguous utopia.” I ask Margaret to define what hope is or can be, and how her work communicating the stories of radical individuals and movements during pivotal moments throughout history on her podcast, Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff, can help us (re-)frame contemporary struggles for liberation, justice, and peace in the world today.
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#331 | Anarcha-Islam: To Struggle Against Our Inner Fascisms w/ Mohamed Abdou
Dr. Mohamed Abdou joins me to discuss Islam and Anarchism: Relationships and Resonances, published this year by Pluto Press.
What are the relationships and resonances between anarchism and Islam? Anarchism, through its Western manifestation, claims "no gods, no masters" as fundamental to anti-authoritarianism, both in theory and practice. Through that lens, what "relationships and resonances" then exist between anarchism and a religious and spiritual system such as Islam? And, ultimately, what can self-identified anarchists in predominately non-Muslim majority Western nations, and practitioners of Islam the world-over, learn from one another?
Read More#311 | The Pagan Anarchist: Animist Worldview & Dreaming As Ritual w/ Christopher Scott Thompson
Pagan author and poet Christopher Scott Thompson joins me to discuss the intersections between animism and anarchism as defined in his essays, and books, published through Gods & Radicals Press, including Pagan Anarchism, and most recently, The Book of Onei (an antinomian dream grimoire), and If In Ruins We Must Live (a collection of mystic poetry).
Read More#303 | The Operating System: A Contemporary Anarchist Theory Of The State w/ Eric Laursen
Intro: 12:43
Journalist, activist, and author Eric Laursen joins me to discuss his recent book The Operating System: An Anarchist Theory of the Modern State, published through AK Press.
Anarchism presents a unique challenge to State power. Since it emerged as a coherent political and social movement in the 18th and 19th centuries, anarchists of various stripes and creeds have pointed to the illegitimate power the State holds, and the role it has played in the dominance of Capital in forming and shaping the trajectory of human societies up to the present day. What would a contemporary critique and theory of the State look like through an anarchist lens? The State, like so much since the dawn of the 21st century, has had to adapt itself to the crises of the times we live in, from climate disruption, economic expansion and contraction, and the Covid-19 pandemic. We can then ask: has the State been up to the task? Or, instead, has it only further exasperated the conditions we live within? How can anarchism present a necessary counter to the overbearing power of the State in our modern moment? Laursen provides some insights into these pressing questions in this interview.
Anyone concerned with entrenched power, income inequality, lack of digital privacy, climate change, the amateurish response to COVID-19, or military-style policing will find eye-opening insights into how states operate and build more power for themselves—at our expense. The state won’t solve our most pressing problems, so why do we obey? It’s time to think outside the state.
Eric Laursen is an independent journalist, historian, and activist. He is the author of The People’s Pension and The Duty to Stand Aside. His work has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including In These Times, The Nation, The Village Voice, Counterpunch, The Arkansas Review, and Z Magazine. He lives in Buckland, Massachusetts.
Episode Notes:
- Learn more and purchase ‘The Operating System’ from Bookshop or AK Press: https://bit.ly/3klRpZ3 / https://www.akpress.org/operating-system.html
- Music was produced by Epik The Dawn.
Video Segment:
#265 | Art & The Void: Majoritarian Reality & The Infinite Sea Of Possibility w/ Margaret Killjoy
Intro: 11:36
In this episode I speak with Margaret Killjoy — anarchist author, musician, and crafter.
In the wake of the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests and uprisings since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, "anarchists" have been in the news. Whether it’s President Trump calling for the arrest of "radical-left anarchists" and "Antifa," or Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden stating that “arsonists and anarchists should be prosecuted,” there is a long history of anarchists being scapegoated by the political elite in times of civil unrest. I ask Margaret to provide some historical context to these statements by Trump and Biden, pointing to the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the Haymarket Affair of 1886 in the United States, and the role anarchists played in each of these respective events.
From there, we move into discussing a recent essay published on her website ‘Art and the Void,’ in which she explores creativity and artistic exploration, using the metaphor of an "ice floe, floating in an infinite sea" to examine our mutually expressed and shared reality and our contributions to it.
We, more or less all of us, live on the ice floe. We, more or less all of us, are constantly in the process of making and fixing and expanding it. Without our continued work, the ice would break apart, or it would melt, and we would be swallowed by the sea, by the void, by the infinite possibility. That is to say, we are constantly in the process of making and remaking reality. We do not do this alone. We do this collectively. (https://bit.ly/2Yg1xXO)
Within this framing, we then discuss not only creative expression as such, but also gender roles and other potentially constricting categories our society imposes on us. We also discuss her focus on writing mostly fiction versus nonfiction, and how both forms of writing can help us explore the sea the infinite possibility.
Margaret Killjoy is the author of numerous novels, including ‘The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion’ and ‘The Barrow Will Send What it May,’ and has contributed to such books as ‘We Are Many.’ She is currently a part several music projects, including Vulgarite, Feminazgul, Alsarath, and Nomadic War Machine. As she states in her bio:
I’ve spent most of my adult life on the road, but am currently nestled into the Appalachian mountains. Politically, I’m an anarchist: I believe society would be better off without systems of hierarchy and oppression such as the state, capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and the like. I’m a trans woman and my preferred pronouns are she/her, but I also believe in the abolition of gendered language and have no problem with people using the singular “they” to refer to me.
Episode Notes:
- Learn more about Margaret and her work: http://birdsbeforethestorm.net
- Read her essay ‘Art and the Void’: https://bit.ly/2Yg1xXO
- Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/magpiekilljoy
- Check out her various music projects: https://vulgarite.bandcamp.com / https://feminazgul.bandcamp.com / https://alsarath.bandcamp.com / https://nomadicwarmachine.bandcamp.com
- The songs featured in this episode are “Witch of Hemlock, Witch of Pine” by Alsarath from the album Come To Daggers and “I Know You're Wrong For Me” by Nomadic War Machine from the album We Are Not Monsters.