Feature Articles
Direct Action Against the War Machine
Bitcoin Pizza Day passed again recently and with it came the expected wave of posts reminiscing about how far the world of cryptocurrency has come since that fateful day when Florida Man sent 10,000 of his magical internet money overseas all for a couple of pizzas. Of course, cryptocurrency has always been touted as a…
Liberate People, Not Peoples
Before I begin, I suppose I should mention that I am an American. I will be, for the most part, addressing issues within the American left. Within that perspective is a recognition of my home country’s disastrous role in interventions across the world, and the large footprint that American military activity has left on other…
god hates your economic machine, your war machine, and your actual machines
The following is part of the 2019 May Poetry Feature at C4SS.   pick ply plumb lungs from empty attic static attack addicts on half racked grief from thief in their solace state has haphazard lack luster map maker she hits finished slits across concrete constables and rips a thick lap victory vein in her golden hair stains…
“No Ethical Consumption Under Capitalism” is a Thought-Stopping Cliche
The meme of “no ethical consumption” under capitalism is, on first impression, entirely correct. Anyone with a systemic analysis of capitalism knows that the big structural problems are the result of entrenched interests that maintain their status through the use of violence. Problems like climate change, planned obsolescence, poor working conditions, and factory farming are…
Labored Breath
The following is part of the 2019 May Poetry Feature at C4SS.  Something caught within your throat this morning, As I listened in, Some roughness at the ragged end, Trying to begin. And as we try another day, I hear the wheeze increase, I hear the fear and pain and grief, Like instruments at play….
JANUARY 6, 2019
The following is part of the 2019 May Poetry Feature at C4SS.  I feel the grasp of your hand as it releases me. I fall & fall for what feels like forever. Landing in my own reality. We’ve got mind, body, and soul; seven billion people trapped in a claustrophobic foxhole. Spinning & spinning &…
The Power of Counter-Recruitment
In the age of the alt-right, antifascist organizing is increasingly a topic of mainstream political dialogue. While most of what is focused on in the news consists of misinformation around subjects such as black bloc, Nazi punching, and deplatforming, there is another tactic that largely goes undiscussed: counter-recruitment. First off, let’s get this out of…
someone needed to do this
The following is part of the 2019 May Poetry Feature at C4SS.   Momma, I’m gonna try real hard not to die today. I wanna promise, I’ll come home. But if I don’t- If some pig murders me, whatever the talking heads say- Someone needed to do this. It had to be me, okay? They’ll maybe…
Radically soft
The following is part of the 2019 May Poetry Feature at C4SS.   I love too hard comforted by touch, hearts warmed through passion, people, animals, places, things. I feel too hard and I always take it personal, never accepted society’s expectations of hardness, never cold, distant, or afraid to take the leap. Nothing is trivial,…
The many
The following is part of the 2019 May Poetry Feature at C4SS.   Sometimes things need fixing; The cogs are all mucked up, Founded on an outdated design, Money thrown to keep ’em spinning. Flaws get lost in rhetoric, and — Distracted by chauvinist conflict — We don’t realize that it just keeps breaking, Gears ground…
A clown is all that I can be
The following poem was inspired by the children of Palestine. It is part of the 2019 May Poetry Feature at C4SS.  I am a clown dwelling beneath rockets Oh land, mourn, mourn this clown’s breath Red wine and tears will crawl along Let them impregnate the dirt New beautiful children will grow strong Becoming clowns,…
Democracy Is Awful and We Need It for a Ton of Stuff
Democracy1, a sluggish and painful example of attempted cooperation, is often a heap of flaming garbage. Obviously, the “democracy” of the Zapatistas or Rojava are far different than that of the US, but self-styled democracies also elected Bolsonaro, Trump, and Hitler. Aside from things like democracy’s potential for corruption and inherent efficiency throttles, it forces…
War Anarchic: Defining War
The following piece was originally published at the blackstarwritings blog and is the first part of a continuing series on war and anarchism. The subject of warfare has been one that I have held a great interest in for some time. With roots in early humanity about five thousand years ago, it is a factor…
Market Dynamics Make Cop-Hating A Valuable Tool
The state depends on its cops to enforce private property. Without them present, the owners would have to hire private security to protect their property from seizure, and that is (due to economies of scale of which the state takes advantage) massively more expensive on the whole. So, one of the most effective ways to…
Avoiding the Excesses of Violence and Pacifism
We anarchists are usually very good at being edgy, and edginess is one of the personality traits that probably attracted many of us to anarchism. Anarchists, like any fringe movement, need to counter-signal against the political mainstream in order to remain relevant. These two things are not necessarily bad; an edgy predisposition enables you more…
Bullshit Jobs and the Calculation Problem
This is not a review of Bullshit Jobs. My verdict on the book is simple: it is good, and you should read it. You should, actually, probably read it before you read this. I’ll be re-explaining some of the concepts in it, but I will not cover them in the same depth as the book…
Navigating the Culture Wars
“Attention to all racists: we will not just “replace” you, we will erase you. All trace of your worthless empty lives will be discarded from history. Your murderous temper tantrums will be like so much static noise lost forever as you are shuffled into the dirt.” – William Gillis, Twitter The internet is a place…
Creating Alternatives to the State
When a person with good intentions tries to penetrate into the nepotistic state-capitalist system, only one scenario awaits him. This system will swallow him, and — after indigestion — the system will tear up the remnants of all the good things in this person. A system that aims from the very beginning to rot will…
Green Market Agorism
Agorist theory has been enriched a lot since Samuel Edward Konkin III introduced the initial theory. Through the writings and work of visionaries such as Karl Hess, Ross Ulbricht, Satoshi Nakamoto, Defense Distributed, and Derrick Broze, we have seen agorism grow and expand in ways never thought possible both intellectually and in practice. And the…
‘The Land Shall Sink’: The Lovecraftian Nature of Sea Level Rise
In 1917, H.P. Lovecraft wrote the following lines in his short story “Dagon”: “I dream of a day when [the nameless things] may rise above the billows to drag down in their reeking talons the remnants of puny, war-exhausted mankind—of a day when the land shall sink, and the dark ocean floor shall ascend amidst…
Anarchy and Democracy
Fighting Fascism
Markets Not Capitalism
The Anatomy of Escape
Organization Theory