@cedar Is there a link to they zine itself somewhere? I've seen this one around, but not sure I ever read it.
Conversation
Notices
-
Embed this notice
Håkan Geijer (hakan_geijer@kolektiva.social)'s status on Tuesday, 03-Oct-2023 00:23:41 JST Håkan Geijer
-
Embed this notice
cedar@kolektiva.social's status on Tuesday, 03-Oct-2023 00:23:42 JST cedar
At the Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair, there was a workshop on anarchist ecology based on the classic text Towards and Anarchist Ecology by Knowing the Land is Resistance:
https://knowingtheland.com/2014/01/28/new-zine-collecting-towards-and-anarchist-ecology/
It was based on the chapter called Re-enchanting, about how maintaining a connection to wild spaces can fuel us in struggle and nourish our spirits.
One participant brought up a critique of affect-driven politics, of having our engagements shaped by what feels good. They said Re-enchanting was the part of the text that spoke to them least and were surprised the presenter chose to focus the workshop on it. Here are a couple of reflections on that:
Håkan Geijer and Abolisyonista repeated this. -
Embed this notice
cedar@kolektiva.social's status on Tuesday, 03-Oct-2023 00:41:06 JST cedar
@hakan_geijer
Yeah, it is hosted on indybay:https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2014/01/28/towards-anarchist-ecology.pdf
It's all old school cut and paste, real cute :)
-
Embed this notice
Håkan Geijer (hakan_geijer@kolektiva.social)'s status on Tuesday, 03-Oct-2023 00:46:02 JST Håkan Geijer
@cedar Ha! I have a copy of that (that I haven't read yet). Guess it's time to move it to the top of the pile.
-
Embed this notice
cedar@kolektiva.social's status on Tuesday, 03-Oct-2023 01:35:08 JST cedar
@hakan_geijer
Nice! I'd be curious to hear what you think once you've had time to go through it. -
Embed this notice
Håkan Geijer (hakan_geijer@kolektiva.social)'s status on Tuesday, 03-Oct-2023 19:45:39 JST Håkan Geijer
@cedar It's better than I thought. I haven't been reading much green anarchist stuff lately because so much seems to be just like Desert-esque climate doomerism and absolute pessimism about anything we might call "civ." This felt much closer to how I feel about ecology.
One of the best parts was how it talked about the ecology of the city. I've met people who think that because they're not "indigenous" or living somewhere rural or even are "from" where they currently live that they can't *really* fight for nature as if that only falls on people who have some mythologized connection to the land. It's very weird because Europe isn't North America, and trying to map dominant narratives from that continent here always seems to leave something lacking (not just ecological narratives).
I think the text was also nice that it didn't romanticise indigenousness into something that uniquely and inherently has some connection to the land and went with something more moderate which is that simply being around it and observing (especially over generations) creates knowledge and a relationship that anyone can have.
Def something I'll be recommending in the future
-
Embed this notice
cedar@kolektiva.social's status on Tuesday, 03-Oct-2023 19:46:22 JST cedar
Have you never read Towards an Anarchist Ecology? Oh my gosh! Either print off the zine at the link above or read it online starting here:
https://knowingtheland.com/2013/04/08/towards-an-anarchist-ecology-introduction/
"We are settlers on this land, raised in cities, rootless, and alienated from the ecosystems we can’t help but be part of. But we want to unlearn what we have been taught by the dominant culture, and in the process, we want to re-learn joy, connection, and wonder, while embracing grief and loss in order to heal. We want to decolonize, and to do this, we need to build a new kind of relationship with the land. We want to take steps towards an anarchist ecology, towards a knowledge of the land that is anti-colonial and anti-authoritarian."
-
Embed this notice
cedar@kolektiva.social's status on Wednesday, 04-Oct-2023 00:30:50 JST cedar
@hakan_geijer
I love that aspect too, where it talks about how every piece of land is equally important to the health of watersheds, even cities, and that wildness and connection to place is always possible.The indigeniety and spirituality piece is super interesting. The text is very much speaking to other settlers and discourages them from adopting a nature-based spirituality, since this kind of connection can only emerge over generations. I guess this could be either the kind of appropriative new age type of spirituality or the derrick Jensen talk to the trees kind.
I'm glad you liked it! I wish more projects would pick up where that one left off and continue building ecological knowledge in an antiauthoritarian way. Like the tour they did where they went around doing workshops on contested urban and suburban wild spaces, I'd love to see more of that.
-
Embed this notice
Håkan Geijer (hakan_geijer@kolektiva.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Oct-2023 04:03:37 JST Håkan Geijer
@cedar Yeah if you know other similar green anarchist texts, please share. I feel like most comes across as a bit wingnutty and doesn't really do it for me
-
Embed this notice