TRANSNATIONAL UTOPIAS LATIN AMERICAN ANARCHISMS
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MICROSYLLABI
Microsyllabus:
Gender, Anarcho-Feminism, and Anarcho-Queerness
That Monster Cannot Be a Woman— This article explores the hierarchies Ricardo Flores Magon’s anarchist Partido Liberal Mexicano created to separate itself from queer LGBQT+ movements. Observing the Famous 41 event from 1901, this article gathers that the anarchist PLM movement embraced the scientific reasoning of biological relationships between men and women and used that to attack their enemies by tying ideas of sexual deviancy to political corruption and ineptitude. Since anarchists saw homosexuality as an unnatural gender transgression that could be exploited, they used vocal and visual anti-queer slurs to prevent their movement from being considered a queer haven.
Abbott, Benjamin H. “‘That Monster Cannot Be a Woman:’ Queerness and Treason in the Partido Liberal Mexicano.” Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies, no. 1 (August 2018): 9-28. https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/adcs/article/view/18340.
Mi Opinion— Capetillo challenged the dominant order of marriage, calling it an institution by which “love becomes prostituted” (36), and by which men and institutions “enslave” women (24) by keeping them from vitally important necessities (education, equal pay). Though radical by many means, Capetillo shared many of the failures of her time: she was anti-masturbation, anti-gay, and often glorified the domesticated woman. Nonetheless, she believed that the government and its institutions created hierarchies that would not die out until the State fell entirely. Believing the government saw those who rejected its hierarchical impositions as “beast in a cage” (63), she fervently supported anarchist movements in Cuba, New York, Florida, and her home, Puerto Rico.
Capetillo, Luisa, and Félix V Matos Rodríguez. A Nation of Women: An Early Feminist Speaks Out. Mi Opinión Sobre Las Libertades, Derechos y Deberes de La Mujer. Houston, Tx: Arte Público Press, 2004.
Queering (Animal) Liberation and (Queers) Victimhood— By observing Queer Theory’s intersectionality with Critical Animal Studies, this paper observes how Bash Back, an American anarchist group (2007-11), championed anti-assimilationist methods to fight hierarchy. Rather than fighting for inclusion (same-sex legal rights) within the State apparatus, this group sought decentralized power, complete solidarity as opposed to liberation, and total separation from all State institutions. Furthermore, this article proposes answers to a wide range of imperative social issues, namely, victimhood, violence, “striking back,” insurrection, veganism, and binary comparisons and contrasts.
Loadenthal, Michael. "Queering (Animal) Liberation and (Queers) Victimhood: The Reappropriation of Intersectionality and Violence." In Without Borders or Limits: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Anarchist Studies, 213-239. Edited by Jorell Melendez Badillo and Nathan Jun. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.
No God, No Boss, No Husband— This article observes the Argentinian newspaper La Voz de la Mujer, an ephemeral publication that promoted propaganda by the deed and gathered wide support from a leftist and anarchist female readership. La Voz de la Mujer fiercely promoted the economic and social equality of women, going as far as attacking male anarchists who failed to support the anarcho-feminist cause. Recognizing it was out of step with popular traditional attitudes of motherhood and womanhood, La Voz de la Mujer nonetheless wrote against gender oppressions like miserable pay, sex itself, and the institution of marriage, without all of which the home would be “a paradise of delights” (134).
Molyneux, Maxine. “No God, No Boss, No Husband: Anarchist Feminism in Nineteenth-Century Argentina.” Latin American perspectives 13, no. 1 (1986): 119–145.
De-essentializing Anarchist Feminism— This chapter observes the failures of previous feminist waves that were ignorant or deliberately exclusionary of trans women. By focusing on a trans-anarchist-feminist approach, the author rejects the idea that womanhood consists of what is “between a person’s legs” (26). Arguing there is no specific number of hierarchies (patriarchy, capitalism, race) against which all women must fight, this article proposes that abolition of all forms of hierarchy is the only way women will find equality and justice.
Rogue, J. “De-essentializing Anarchist Feminism: Lessons from the Transfeminist Movement.” In Queering Anarchism: Addressing and Undressing Power and Desire, 23-28. Edited by Daring, C. B. Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2012.
Abbott, Benjamin H. “‘That Monster Cannot Be a Woman:’ Queerness and Treason in the Partido Liberal Mexicano.” Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies, no. 1 (August 2018): 9-28. https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/adcs/article/view/18340.
Mi Opinion— Capetillo challenged the dominant order of marriage, calling it an institution by which “love becomes prostituted” (36), and by which men and institutions “enslave” women (24) by keeping them from vitally important necessities (education, equal pay). Though radical by many means, Capetillo shared many of the failures of her time: she was anti-masturbation, anti-gay, and often glorified the domesticated woman. Nonetheless, she believed that the government and its institutions created hierarchies that would not die out until the State fell entirely. Believing the government saw those who rejected its hierarchical impositions as “beast in a cage” (63), she fervently supported anarchist movements in Cuba, New York, Florida, and her home, Puerto Rico.
Capetillo, Luisa, and Félix V Matos Rodríguez. A Nation of Women: An Early Feminist Speaks Out. Mi Opinión Sobre Las Libertades, Derechos y Deberes de La Mujer. Houston, Tx: Arte Público Press, 2004.
Queering (Animal) Liberation and (Queers) Victimhood— By observing Queer Theory’s intersectionality with Critical Animal Studies, this paper observes how Bash Back, an American anarchist group (2007-11), championed anti-assimilationist methods to fight hierarchy. Rather than fighting for inclusion (same-sex legal rights) within the State apparatus, this group sought decentralized power, complete solidarity as opposed to liberation, and total separation from all State institutions. Furthermore, this article proposes answers to a wide range of imperative social issues, namely, victimhood, violence, “striking back,” insurrection, veganism, and binary comparisons and contrasts.
Loadenthal, Michael. "Queering (Animal) Liberation and (Queers) Victimhood: The Reappropriation of Intersectionality and Violence." In Without Borders or Limits: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Anarchist Studies, 213-239. Edited by Jorell Melendez Badillo and Nathan Jun. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.
No God, No Boss, No Husband— This article observes the Argentinian newspaper La Voz de la Mujer, an ephemeral publication that promoted propaganda by the deed and gathered wide support from a leftist and anarchist female readership. La Voz de la Mujer fiercely promoted the economic and social equality of women, going as far as attacking male anarchists who failed to support the anarcho-feminist cause. Recognizing it was out of step with popular traditional attitudes of motherhood and womanhood, La Voz de la Mujer nonetheless wrote against gender oppressions like miserable pay, sex itself, and the institution of marriage, without all of which the home would be “a paradise of delights” (134).
Molyneux, Maxine. “No God, No Boss, No Husband: Anarchist Feminism in Nineteenth-Century Argentina.” Latin American perspectives 13, no. 1 (1986): 119–145.
De-essentializing Anarchist Feminism— This chapter observes the failures of previous feminist waves that were ignorant or deliberately exclusionary of trans women. By focusing on a trans-anarchist-feminist approach, the author rejects the idea that womanhood consists of what is “between a person’s legs” (26). Arguing there is no specific number of hierarchies (patriarchy, capitalism, race) against which all women must fight, this article proposes that abolition of all forms of hierarchy is the only way women will find equality and justice.
Rogue, J. “De-essentializing Anarchist Feminism: Lessons from the Transfeminist Movement.” In Queering Anarchism: Addressing and Undressing Power and Desire, 23-28. Edited by Daring, C. B. Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2012.
Microsyllabus:
Effects of European Revolutions on Latin American Radicalism
“[We] have succeeded only in pressing the authors of the master narrative to alter their stories slightly, or to add another box for “the poor” on the side of the page.” - David Brion Davis, The Many Headed Hydra
Anarchism in Latin America - As with almost all Latin American radical history, it is necessary to begin with Angel Cappelletti. Cappelletti’s work reaches across both time and space to provide an invaluable codex on anarchism from its origins to modernity. Regarding the effects of the Spanish Civil War Cappelletti gives a brief account of the import of the CNT and FAI to radical factions in Latin America, and the individuals who volunteered to fight against Franco’s fascism. His account is brief but well sourced and provides overviews on the impact of European revolutions in the early 20th century. Cappelletti is not focused on this aspect, nor any aspect at all, but serves as a touchstone and starting point for research into the subject.
Cappelletti, Angel J., and Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez. Anarchism in Latin America. Edinburgh: AK Press, 2018. 83-85, 387-389
Russian Revolution and Its Global Impact - Although not an explicitly anarchist program, research on the rise and impact of Marxist-Leninism in Latin America coincides with the defeat of anarchism. The work discusses the impact of communism in Peru, Puerto Rico, et al. and thus the subsequent growth of Marxism throughout the previously anarchic Latin American radical circuit. The authors show from both Soviet and Latin American perspectives the growth of Marxism and the impact of the Revolution both ideologically and politically throughout the 20th century. The work itself is broad and shows the wide ranging nature of radical political change in any part of the world. A great example of the Counter Republic of Letters in action, and both a sympathetic and skeptical view of 1917.
Daly, Jonathan VNV, and Leonid VNV Trofimov. The Russian Revolution and Its Global Impact: A Short History with Documents. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2017.
Boletín Informativo - This periodical is a 1930’s Argentine anarchist production calling for and detailing the extent of aid given to the Spanish “Popular Front,” a left wing coalition dedicated to fighting Franco. The periodical shows much solidarity. Other periodicals followed throughout 1938, detailing explicitly the contributions given by Argentinian radicals to the anti-Franco coalition, which included left leaning liberals, Marxists, and anarcho-syndicalists in the CNT-FAI. Despite no record of volunteers in the paper, logistical and monetary donations are to be found in plenty and show that the war against facism was front and center in the mind of Latin American radicals throughout the 1930s.
Federación de Organismos de Ayuda a la República Española. Boletín Informativo. March 1938, First edition. http://primarysources.brillonline.com/browse/latin-american-anarchist-periodicals/boletin-informativo-boletin-informativo-federacion-de-organismos-de-ayuda-a-la-republica-espanola
Anarchism and the Mexican Working Class 1860-1931 - Hart in his work primarily tracks the decline and fall of Mexican anarchy, a trend that held sway at various times throughout post-1917 Latin America. Hart argues that by 1931 Mexican anarchism was essentially a dead tradition but details the lasting and important ties between Spanish anarchism and Mexican anarchism and the large wave of Spanish emigres after the fall of CNT. Hart details the “failure” of CROM, the impact of early 1930s law, and the development of anarchist theory on the Western side of the Atlantic in the early 20th century. The text also discusses the growth of communism in Mexico in the post October Revolution era and serves to indirectly set the stage for the coming whirlwind of the late 1930s.
Hart, John M. Anarchism and the Mexican Working Class. Austin, TX: Univ. of Texas Press, 1987.
Mexican Anarchism After the Revolution - This work is an in depth and well rounded look at Mexican Anarchism in the post 1920s era. Hodges mentions the impact of Spanish expatriates on Mexican guerilla warfare, communal organization, and the crushing impact of the failure of Spanish Anarchism during the ‘30s. The work also details the looming threat of fascism as a uniting factor for dissident leftist factions in Mexico and the triumph of Soviet communism as a draw toward COMINTERN in the Mexican left. The work details biographies of prominent Mexican leftists, and interestingly argues that Guevara (and many other Mexican radicals) could be described as Anarcho-Marxist. Hodges discusses fluently and intricately the details of the October Revolution as a lingering spectre and the massive theoretical and practical effects of the Spanish Civil War in Mexico.
Hodges, Donald Clark. Mexican Anarchism after the Revolution. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.
Microsyllabus:
Anarchist Resistance Culture: Communication, Militancy and Lifestyles
Underground Passages: Anarchist Resistance Culture, 1848-2011 --This chapter of Cohn's book on anarchist resistance explores the way in which anarchist literature was produced and the intentions of different anarchists in producing them in different forms. It dives into the usefulness of pieces of literature such as zines periodicals books and newspapers and how they were produced with the often limited resources that anarchists had access to. In addition, Cohn talks about the ways in which anarchist’s thought and wrote to ensure that their messages were understood by their audiences. Whether it involved in-depth analyses or short to-the-point zines, many anarchists were very skilled at getting their specific anarchist message across to others.
Cohn, Jesse S. "The Reader In The Factory." Underground Passages: Anarchist Resistance Culture, 1848-2011, by Jesse Cohn, Oakland, AK Press, 2015. Vol. 25 of Underground Passages: Anarchist Resistance Culture, 1848-2011.
Anarchy in Athens: An ethnography of militancy, emotions and violence — This book discussed the turmoil in modern Greece between Athenian anarchists and the state. This conflict stems from the poor economic situation Greece is in and the policies it has implemented that go against anarchist beliefs. The book discusses the aspects of the conflict outside of the anarchist street protests. These militant aspects include, feeding the hungry and poor, protecting migrants from physical harm and efforts towards creating a free social, political and cultural space. Anarchists in the conflict are shown throughout the book baring hostility towards the various forms of hierarchy and discrimination within Greece that stem from the capitalist state.
Apoifis, Nicholas. Anarchy in Athens: An Ethnography of Militancy, Emotions and Violence. Manchester, Manchester UP, 2016.
Colonialism, Transnationalism, and Anarchism in the South of the Mediterranean —This book talks about the dynamics of colonialism, transnationalism and anarchism as forces south of the Mediterranean Sea. These dynamics consider how anarchism is being interpreted in those areas relative to its Eurocentric beginnings. In addition the book explores the relationship between anarchism and colonialism and how that affects anarchist resistance. Anarchist lifestyle is also touched on as the book considers intergenerational prefigurative anarchist politics. The beginnings of anarchist movements in Morocco to Palestine, Algeria, Tunis, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan are also considered in this book.
Galián, Laura. Colonialism, Transnationalism, and Anarchism in the South of the Mediterranean. Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
Anarchism as a Way of Life — Anarchism as a Way of Life, is an article that details anarchist thought on hierarchies and what they must do to achieve horizontalism, a key goal of the school of thought. Baker's source examines anarchism as a lifestyle and how people who identify as anarchists should live their lives in resistance to the hierarchical societies around them. The source engages with Malatesta’s interpretation of anarchism. The aspects Baker focuses on are, how people live as anarchists and the prefigurative politics they abide by in order to try to live in the anarchist future now. The author talks about how experimentation with rules for horizontality is a key aspect of living gprefigurativley as it will help anarchists to figure out which rules work to ensure true anarchism and which do not.
Baker, Zoe. "Anarchism as a Way of Life: Malatesta's anarchism, prefiguration and the class struggle." The Anarchist Library, 25 Sept. 2021, theanarchistlibrary.org/special/about. Accessed 15 Nov. 2021.
Cohn, Jesse S. "The Reader In The Factory." Underground Passages: Anarchist Resistance Culture, 1848-2011, by Jesse Cohn, Oakland, AK Press, 2015. Vol. 25 of Underground Passages: Anarchist Resistance Culture, 1848-2011.
Anarchy in Athens: An ethnography of militancy, emotions and violence — This book discussed the turmoil in modern Greece between Athenian anarchists and the state. This conflict stems from the poor economic situation Greece is in and the policies it has implemented that go against anarchist beliefs. The book discusses the aspects of the conflict outside of the anarchist street protests. These militant aspects include, feeding the hungry and poor, protecting migrants from physical harm and efforts towards creating a free social, political and cultural space. Anarchists in the conflict are shown throughout the book baring hostility towards the various forms of hierarchy and discrimination within Greece that stem from the capitalist state.
Apoifis, Nicholas. Anarchy in Athens: An Ethnography of Militancy, Emotions and Violence. Manchester, Manchester UP, 2016.
Colonialism, Transnationalism, and Anarchism in the South of the Mediterranean —This book talks about the dynamics of colonialism, transnationalism and anarchism as forces south of the Mediterranean Sea. These dynamics consider how anarchism is being interpreted in those areas relative to its Eurocentric beginnings. In addition the book explores the relationship between anarchism and colonialism and how that affects anarchist resistance. Anarchist lifestyle is also touched on as the book considers intergenerational prefigurative anarchist politics. The beginnings of anarchist movements in Morocco to Palestine, Algeria, Tunis, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan are also considered in this book.
Galián, Laura. Colonialism, Transnationalism, and Anarchism in the South of the Mediterranean. Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
Anarchism as a Way of Life — Anarchism as a Way of Life, is an article that details anarchist thought on hierarchies and what they must do to achieve horizontalism, a key goal of the school of thought. Baker's source examines anarchism as a lifestyle and how people who identify as anarchists should live their lives in resistance to the hierarchical societies around them. The source engages with Malatesta’s interpretation of anarchism. The aspects Baker focuses on are, how people live as anarchists and the prefigurative politics they abide by in order to try to live in the anarchist future now. The author talks about how experimentation with rules for horizontality is a key aspect of living gprefigurativley as it will help anarchists to figure out which rules work to ensure true anarchism and which do not.
Baker, Zoe. "Anarchism as a Way of Life: Malatesta's anarchism, prefiguration and the class struggle." The Anarchist Library, 25 Sept. 2021, theanarchistlibrary.org/special/about. Accessed 15 Nov. 2021.