ANARCHY
START HERE
WHAT ANARCHY IS
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"Life Without Law" - Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness (Introduction from 2013)
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"Anarchy" - Errico Malatesta | PDF - Audiobook (Brilliant introduction to anarchy written in 1891)
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"Anarchy Works" - Peter Gelderloos | PDF (Long-form modern exploration of anarchy and its utility. 2010)
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"Anarchy is" - ziq | PDF - Audiobook (Quickly lists things anarchy is for and against. 2021)
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"The Principles of Anarchism" - Lucy Parsons (A vivacious lecture given sometime between 1905-1910)
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"Anarchy 101" - Bob Black | PDF (Short explainer from the 1990s)
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"The Anarchist Tension" - Alfredo M. Bonanno | PDF - Audiobook (1996)
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"Anarchism and Other Essays" - Emma Goldman | PDF - Audiobook (Best introduction from the early 20th century - written in 1911)
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"Anarchy: The Life and Joy of Insubordination" - Flower Bomb (2018)
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"Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction" - Colin Ward | PDF (Not really very short, 2004)
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"Anarchism" - Voltairine de Cleyre | PDF (Introduction to "anarchism without adjectives" written in 1901)
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"What is Communist Anarchism?" - Alexander Berkman | PDF - Audiobook (Well-regarded introduction to the communist strain of anarchy written in 1929)
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"Anarchism" - Peter Kropotkin | PDF (Kropotkin's article on anarchism for the 1910 Encyclopædia Britannica)
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"Your Freedom Is My Freedom: The Premise Of Anarchism" - William Gillis
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"Anarchism Vs. Civilization" - Margaret Killjoy (Argues all anarchists are opposed to civilization: "To argue in favor of civilization is as absurd as to argue in favor of the state". 2010.)
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"Anarchy in Action" - Colin Ward | PDF (1996)
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"Anarchism: A Beginner's Guide" - Ruth Kinna | PDF (2005)
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"Anarchism and Its Aspirations" - Cindy Milstein | PDF (2010)
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"The Negativity of Anarchism" - David Wieck | PDF (Good basic analysis of what ties all variations of anarchism together, 1975)
WHAT ANARCHY ISN'T
Authority / Hierarchy / Archy
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"What is Authority" - Mikhail Bakunin (One of the first explanations of what anarchy is against, 1870)
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"Anarchy Vs. Archy: No Justified Authority" - ziq | PDF - Audiobook (Modern explanation of why anarchy rejects all hierarchy and authority, 2018)
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"Toward the Creative Nothing" - Renzo Novatore (Fiery criticism of religion, democracy, war, fascism, socialism, and - indeed, society, 1924)
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"A Schematic Anarchism (Introduction)" - Shawn P. Wilbur (Brief exploration of archy and the consequences of anarchy in an archic society, 2022)
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"Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed" - James C. Scott (Deep dive into the failures of "high modernism" and statism, 1998)
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"The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism" - Fredy Perlman | (PDF) (Audiobook) (An excellent analysis revealing the enduring appeal of nationalism & statism, 1984)
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"Neither Lord Nor Subject" - Bao Jingyan (A Taoist perspective written some time between 400 and 200AD)
Democracy
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"From Democracy to Freedom," CrimethInc. (Introduction to the problems with democracy and how anarchy is different, 2012)
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"Anarchists Against Democracy: In Their Own Words" - Various authors (A long list of quotes from anarchists both living and dead - explaining the various failures of democracy)
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"Voting vs. Direct Action" - CrimethInc (Arguments against voting and electoral politics in favor of direct action, 2004)
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"Democracy vs Desire: Beyond the Politics of Measure" - Andy Robinson (2005)
Prisons / Police
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"Our Enemies In Blue: Police and Power in America" - Kristian Williams - Audiobook
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Alternatives to Police - Rose City Copwatch (PDF, 2008)
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"Alternatives to the Police" - Evan Dent, Molly Korab, and Farid Rener
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"The Justice Trap: Law and the Disempowerment of Society" - Peter Gelderloos
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"Instead of Prisons: A Handbook for Abolitionists" - Prison Research Education Action Project
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"An Anarchist Response to 'An Anarchist Response to Crime'" - Bob Black (a critique of a paper calling for "anarcho"-prisons)
Rights
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"The Myth of Human Rights" - Bob Black (Long-form exploration of the concept of "rights" and how it conflicts with anarchy, 2021)
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"But the Government Said I Have Rights" - ziq (Short introduction to the limitations of human rights discourse, 2022)
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"The Abolition of Law" - Nevada (PDF) (Contains an account of the George Floyd uprising as well as a critique of law, 2022)
Religion
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"God and the State" - Mikhail Bakunin (Audiobook) (Bakunin's atheist text setting out the anarchist critique of religion as bound up in legitimizing the state. 1871)
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"Anarchy & Religion" - ziq (Makes a case against mixing organized religion and anarchy. 2019)
Marxism and its Offshoots
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"Marxism - Freedom and the State" - Mikhail Bakunin (Bakunin's case against the dictatorship of the proletariat. 1867)
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"There is no Communism in Russia" - Emma Goldman (Emma Goldman's argument as to why the USSR was state capitalist, 1935)
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"Always Against the Tanks" - Darya Rustamova & Mike Harman (2019)
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"State Socialism and Anarchism" - Benjamin R. Tucker (1888) (Audiobook)
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"Anarchy and 'Scientific' Communism" - Luigi Fabbri (Fabbri's response to Nikolai Bukharin's critique of anarchism, 1922)
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"Listen - Marxist!" - Murray Bookchin (Aimed predominantly at students influenced by the Maoist Progressive Labor Party which was active in 1960s and 70s USA. 1971)
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"Tankies and the Left-Unity Scam" - ziq (Exploration of the atrocities committed by Marxists through history. 2018)
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"The Struggle Against Fascism Begins with the Struggle Against Bolshevism" - Otto Rühle (1939) | PDF (Audiobook)
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"Eradicate Left Unity" - ziq (Rejection of the idea that anarchists should have anything to do with Marxists. 2021)
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"Nightmares of Reason" - Bob Black (a very long critique of Murray Bookchin and communalism: a fusion of anarchism and Marxism that Bookchin invented, 2010)
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"Anarchy Vs. Communalism" - ziq (a shorter critique of communalism, 2018)
Capitalism
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"An Anarchist Critique of Anarcho-Statism" - Iain McKay (Critique of anarcho-capitalism)
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"So why call it Anarchism?" - Iain McKay (Critique of conservatives who attempt to appropriate anarchy)
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"Anarcho-Capitalism?" - ziq (Another critique of anarcho-capitalism)
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"The “Stirner Wasn’t A Capitalist You Fucking Idiot” Cheat Sheet" - Dr. Bones
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"What is Property?: An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government" - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (Shawn P. Wilbur's notes provide some interesting insights into this classic)
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"The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand" - Kevin Carson (Analyzes the state's role in the formation of capitalism) | PDF
BEING AN ANARCHIST
Life as an Anarchist
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"Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You!" - David Graeber
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"Living My Life" - Emma Goldman (Emma Goldman's Autobiography)
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"Walden: Life in the Woods" - Henry David Thoreau (A reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. Part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and manual for self-reliance)
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"There Is a Secret World Concealed Within This One" - CrimethInc
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"Anarchist Individualism as a Life and Activity" - Emile Armand
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"Repress This! Ways to be your own Anti-Repression Committee" (Provides basic actions and precautions for engaging in anti-repression work)
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"Revolution and Restorative Justice: An Anarchist Perspective" - Peter Kletsan
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"Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist" - Alexander Berkman | (PDF) (audiobook) (1912)
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"We Are an Image From the Future: The Greek Revolt of December 2008," - Void Network (PDF) (2010)
Anti-Authority
Mutual Aid
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"Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)" - Dean Spade (Provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid; offers concrete tools for organizing)
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"Seven steps to organizing a Food Not Bombs chapter in your community" - Food Not Bombs
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"Words Mean Things" - Anathema (Very short and straightforward definition of Mutual Aid)
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"Starting An Anarchist Black Cross: A Guide" - Anonymous (PDF)
Occupation, Blockading & Squatting
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"Do-It-Yourself Occupation Guide" - Sprout Distro (Guide to squatting)
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"Occupation: A Do-it-Yourself Guide" - The Imaginary Committee
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"It’s Vacant - Take It!" - Sprout Distro (Tips on finding friends to squat with, finding a building, securing a squat, dealing with the law and/or property owners)
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"T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone - Ontological Anarchy - Poetic Terrorism" - Hakim Bey
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"Worker-Student Action Committees: France May ’68" - Roger Gregoire & Fredy Perlman | PDF
Self-Defense
Privacy & Security
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"Deserting the Digital Utopia" - CrimethInc. (Important reality check in this digital age)
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"Cover Your Forehead!" (How to dress when doing direct action)
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"Who are you Streaming For? Three Critiques of Livestreaming" (The dangers presented by live-streaming and the enabling of citizen snitches)
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"Doxcare: Prevention and Aftercare for Those Targeted by Doxxing and Political Harassment" (How to protect yourself from online stalkers)
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"In Defense of Smashing Cameras" - Sprout Distro (Argument for smashing cameras to inhibit photographing demonstrations)
Mental Health
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"Activist Trauma & Recovery" - Sprout Distro (Explores post-traumatic stress and how to recover from it)
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"Class Struggle & Mental Health" - Sprout Distro (explores the prevalence of depression - mental illness - and emotional stress within radical spaces)
Demonstration
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"Blocing Up" - Sprout Distro (Comic covering the history and basics of the black bloc tactic, and recent lessons from the streets)
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"Resistance in the Street" (Guide for remaining free from law enforcement while still keeping an offensive posture in the streets)
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"Hong Kong Protest Tactics & Roles" (Outlines a variety of different roles in a protest and shows how to effectively take on the police in a street demonstration)
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"Fight the Man and Get Away Safely" - Sprout Distro (How to safely survive situations created by police violence and confrontation)
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"A Demonstrator's Guide to Understanding Riot Munitions" - CrimethInc
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"Bodyhammer: Tactics and Self-Defense for the Modern Protestor" - Sprout Distro (Details the use of body armor to neutralize the so-called “less lethal” weapons used by police to stop protests)
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"Riot/Control" - Research and Destroy New York City (Information about crowd control tactics and rioting)
First Aid
Art
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"Banner Drops - Stencils - Wheatpaste - and Distributing Information" - Sprout Distro
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"The Walls are Alive" - CrimethInc. (A How-To Graffiti Guide For Those Who Scheme and Those Who Dream)
Direct Action General
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"A Step-by-Step Guide to Direct Action" - CrimethInc (Audiobook)
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"Recipies for Disaster: An Anarchist Cookbook" - CrimethInc | PDF
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"Earth First! Direct Action Manual" (3rd edn.) | PDF
Freedom of Association, Solidarity & Confederation
ANTI-WORK ANARCHY
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"Beyond Workerism Beyond Syndicalism " - Alfredo M. Bonanno (1988)
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"Anti-Work: From “I Quit” to “We Revolt”" - CrimethInc. (2022)
ANARCHIST FEMINISM
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"Anarcha-Feminist Manifesto" - The Ongoing Collective (2020)
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"Understanding Patriarchy" - bell hooks | PDF
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"Ain't I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism" - bell hooks (PDF)
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"Feminism and Anarchy" - Commission des femmes | PDF
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"“Separate and equal”?: Mujeres Libres and anarchist strategy for women's emancipation"
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"Anarchism and Feminism: Toward a Happy Marriage?" - Chiara Bottici
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"With Allies Like These: Reflections on Privilege Reductionism" - Common Cause Ottawa
GREEN ANARCHY, ANTI-CIV ANARCHY & ANARCHIST NIHILISM
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"Against His-story - Against Leviathan!" - Fredy Perlman (Illustrated PDF)
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"Burn the Bread Book" - ziq (An argument against anarcho-communism due to the effects of industrial life on the climate)
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"Agents of Change: Primal War and the Collapse of Global Civilization" - Kevin Tucker (Exploring the consequences of civilization and its impending collapse and coming to terms with the effect our lifestyles have on all species on the planet)
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"Symbiogenetic Desire: An Egoist Conception of Ecology" - Bellamy Fitzpatrick
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"Tools of Anarchism" - elany (A point by point exploration of post-colonial primal anarchy)
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"Survival in the Endtimes: A Wildpunk “Manifesto”" - elany, samuel b
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"Land and Freedom" - Seaweed (Outlining the battle between society and ecology)
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"The Primitivist Critique of Civilization" - Richard Heinberg
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"Memento Mori: We Endlings (A Message from Toughie, Last of the Rabbs’ Fringe-Limbed Treefrogs)" - CrimethInc (A brief analysis of extinction and what it means to be the last of your kind)
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"The Rotting Carcass Behind The Green-Scare: How Anti-Civ Anarchy Became the Most Controversial Position" - ziq (An introduction to anti-civ, a history of green anarchy more broadly, and a fierce deconstruction of the left's demonizing of anti-civs)
INSURRECTIONIST & ILLEGALIST ANARCHY
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"At Daggers Drawn with the Existent - its Defenders and its False Critics" - Anonymous (Audiobook) (Compelling introduction to insurrectionism)
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"The Anarchist Ethic in the Age of the Anti-Globalization Movement" - Anonymous (Insurrectionist classic)
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"I Saw Fire: Reflections on Riots - Revolt & The Black Block" - Doug Gilbert (Audiobook)
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"Some Notes on Insurrectionary Anarchism" - Sasha K (Audiobook)
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"Fire At Midnight Destruction At Dawn" - Kasimere Bran (Audiobook)
ANTI-LEFT ANARCHY, POST-ANARCHISM & EGOISM
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"Post-Left Anarchy: Leaving the Left Behind" - Jason McQuinn
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"Egoist-Communism: What It Is and What It Isn’t" - Dr. Bones
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"The Unique & Its Property" - Max Stirner (Audiobook (Old Translation))
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"Days of War, Nights of Love", CrimethInc. | PDF 1-page view | PDF 2-page view
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"Mutual Utilization: Relationship and Revolt in Max Stirner" - Massimo Passamani
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"Anarchists - Don't let the Left(overs) Ruin your Appetite" - Lawrence Jarach
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"Critical Analysis of the Left: Lets Clean House" - Joaquin Cienfuegos
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"Critical Thinking as an Anarchist Weapon" - Wolfi Landstreicher & Jason McQuinn
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"Against Organizationalism: Anarchism as both Theory & Critique of Organization" - Jason McQuinn
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"Demoralizing Moralism: The Futility of Fetishized Values" - Jason McQuinn
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"From Politics to Life: Ridding anarchy of the leftist millstone" - Wolfi Landstreicher (heavily critiqued by Lilith in "Gender Disobedience: Antifeminism & Insurrectionist Non-dialogue"
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"Radical Theory: A Wrecking Ball for Ivory Towers" - Wolfi Landstreicher
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"Pilsen: Chicago’s Revolution of Everyday Life" - Silas Crane
INDIGENOUS ANARCHY, BLACK ANARCHY & DECOLONIZATION
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"Unknowable: Against an Indigenous Anarchist Theory" - Klee Benally
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"Indigenous Anarchy & The Need for a Rejection of the Colonizer's "Civilization"" - ziq
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"Voting is Not Harm Reduction – An Indigenous Perspective" - indigenousaction.org
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"Defend the Territory: Tactics and Techniques for Countering Police Assaults on Indigenous Communities" - Warrior Publications (Thorough overview of the types of repression that are frequently used against indigenous blockades)
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"Anarchism and the Black Revolution" - Lorenzo Kom Boa Ervin
QUEER & TRANS ANARCHY
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"The History of Sexuality: Volume 1" - Michel Foucault (PDF)
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"Free comrades: Anarchism and homosexuality in the United States 1895-1917" - Terence Kissack
EARTH-ANIMAL LIBERATION & VEGAN ANARCHY
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"Fuck Your Red Revolution" - ziq (Argument for adopting harm-reducing lifestyles such as veganism)
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"Earth First! Wolf Hunt Sabotage Manual" - Sprout Distro (Explains the how and why of hunt sabotage aimed at saving wolves)
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"Veganism" - CrimethInc (An argument for freeganism)
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"Veganarchy: Anti-Speciest Warfare & Direct Action" - the veganarchist underground
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"What Savages We Must Be: Vegans Without Morality" - Flower Bomb
Critiques:
SYNDICALISM
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"Fighting for Ourselves: Anarcho-Syndicalism and the Class Struggle" - Solidarity Federation (A more contemporary introduction to anarcho-syndicalism)
ANTI-WAR & NON-VIOLENT RESISTANCE
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"Direct Action and the New Pacifism" Nicolas Walter (1962) | PDF
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"Civil Disobedience" - Henry David Thoreau | Audiobook (Thoreau argues people shouldn't permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that they have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. 1849)
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"The Kingdom of God is Within You" - Leo Tolstoy (A christian anarchist perspective from 1893)
Critiques:
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"How Nonviolence Protects the State" - Peter Gelderloos (audiobook)
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"In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action" - Vicky Osterweil | PDF
COMMUNISM
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"An Anarchist Programme" (1920) - Errico Malatesta [audiobook]
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"Communism" - David Graeber (2010)
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"ABC of the Revolutionary Anarchist" (1932) - Nestor Mahkno
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"Between Peasants (Fra Contadini)" - Errico Malatesta [PDF]
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"Now and After: The ABC's of Communist Anarchism" - Alexander Berkman [PDF] [audiobook] (1929)
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"The Conquest of Bread" (1892) - Petr Kropotkin [audiobook]
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"Introduction to Anarchist Communism" - Anarchist Federation
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"The Relevance of Max Stirner to Anarcho-Communists" - Matty Thomas
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"The Reproduction of Everyday Life" - Fredy Perlman (Audiobook) (Good intro to some Marxist concepts such as alienation - commodity fetishism - etc.)
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"An Anarchist Solution to Global Warming" - Peter Gelderloos (Audiobook) (Despite its name, gives some suggestions (but not blueprints) on how an anarchist society might look like post collapse/revolution)
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"Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists" - Dielo Truda (Workers’ Cause) (Historical importance; platformism)
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"The Anarchist Synthesis" - Sébastien Faure (Historical importance; synthesis anarchism)
HISTORY THROUGH THE ANARCHIST LENS
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"The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control: The State and Counter-Revolution" - Maurice Brinton
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"The Russian Counterrevolution" - CrimethInc | PDF (Best intro to the Russian revolution from an anarchist POV)
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"The Unknown Revolution" - Voline (Volin's extensive work on the Russian Revolution - its usurping by the Bolsheviks and on workers' rebellions against the new dictatorship)
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"The Tragedy of Spain" - Rudolf Rocker (German anarcho-syndicalist Rudolf Rocker's history of the Spanish Civil War and Revolution.)
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"Obsolete communism: The left wing alternative" - Daniel and Gabriel Cohn-Bendit (An account of the May '68 uprising)
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"The End of Anarchism?" - Luigi Galleani (A response by Luigi Galleani in 1907 to Francisco Saverio Merlino's declaration that Anarchism was dead.)
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"Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy" - Gabriel Kuhn (Study of proto-anarchist pirate societies)
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"Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism" - Peter Marshall
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"Homage to Catalonia" - George Orwell (audiobook) (Orwell's account of anarchist Catalonia & the anarchists betrayal by Stalinists)
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"Cuba and the Demonization of Anarchists: A Lesson for Our Times" - Rafael Uzcategui
NOTABLE ANARCHISTS
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"Lucy Parsons: 'More Dangerous Than a Thousand Rioters'" - Keith Rosenthal
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"An American Anarchist: The Life of Voltairine de Cleyre" - Paul Avrich
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"Emma Goldman, One of History’s Best-Known Anarchists, Left an Outsized Legacy" - Kim Kelly
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"Kropotkin: The Anarchist Formerly Known as Prince" - Iain McKay
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"Having Little, Being Much: A Chronicle of Fredy Perlman’s Fifty Years" - Lorraine Perlman
ANARCHIST PROSE
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"To the Desertmaker" - ziq (Very short)
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"Someone Comes to Town - Someone Leaves Town" - Cory Doctorow
COMMUNIZATION
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"When Insurrections Die" - Gilles Dauvé (Audiobook) (Brilliant critique from communisation tendency.)
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"Eclipse and reemergence of the communist movement" - Gilles Dauvé and François Martin
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"Endnotes - issue 1" (a debate between GD and TC over the basis for the failure of the old workers movement) (PDF)
Critiques:
SITUATIONIST
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"The Society of the Spectacle" - Guy Debord (Foundational situ text)
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"It's Crazy How Many Things Don't Exist" - Jean-Pierre Voyer
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"Ways In and Ways Out of the Situationist Labyrinth" - Alejandro de Acosta
SOCIALISM
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"The Communist Manifesto" - Karl Marx & Frederick Engels (Audiobook)
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"The Principles of Communism" - Frederick Engels (Audiobook)
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"Socialism: Utopian and Scientific" - Frederick Engels (Audiobook)
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"The Soul of Man under Socialism" - Oscar Wilde (Audiobook) (The artists - and individualists - case for libertarian socialism)