Spencer Beswick

@spencerbeswick.bsky.social

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Anarcho-Historian & Bookmonger at PM Press. Currently teaching at Cornell. I write about anarchism in the late 20th century.

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Part of what I find so compelling about Love and Rage is how they drew on multiple radical traditions to reimagine revolutionary anarchism in the 1990s. As I write in my chapter "Smashing Whiteness," Love and Rage rejected the colorblindness of classical American anarchism and 1/

I actually agree with liberals that the most important thing in this election is beating Trump in order to preserve what is left of American democracy and stave off fascism. That's why I'm so fucking pissed at the Democrats for insisting on running a senile corpse against Trump.

On punks & reproles 🧵 Love and Rage was shaped by its social base of reproletarianized white punks. In a 1994 position paper called ‘Love and Rage in the New World Order’, Chris Day argues that while most members were the children of the middle class, this did not necessarily 1/

Peter Kropotkin in "An Appeal to the Young": "All of you who possess knowledge, talents, if you have a good heart, come, you and your companions, and place them at the service of those who need them most. And know that if you come, not as masters but as comrades in the struggle; 1/3

Available now from PM Press: DIY OR DIE! Do-It-Yourself, Do-It-Together & Punk Anarchism, featuring a chapter by yours truly. It's my first time in a book and it'll make me really happy if you buy it! pmpress.org/index.php?l=...

Conservatives love to argue that the US is a republic, not a democracy. Fine! Let's be a democracy instead! Murray Bookchin on the distinction: "A face-to-face relationship between active citizens for the purpose of arriving at a consensus is alien to republican systems of government. 1/

I have very little in common politically with anyone who finds Max Stirner more compelling than Kropotkin.

Peter Kropotkin: "A revolutionary paper must be, above all, a record of those symptoms which everywhere announce the coming of a new era, the germination of new forms of social life, the growing revolt against antiquated forms of social life."

Pretty worried that the fascists are gonna win this election in France today. I will say that I think this is good evidence that fascism is not just a ruling class response to capitalist crisis: most of the ruling/capitalist class clearly prefers Macron (and Biden, etc.).

Peter Kropotkin on the elderly, reactionary ruling class in the late 19th C. & also #Debate2024 : "Helpless old men, wrinkled skin and tottering feet, gnawed by constitutional diseases, unable to absorb the flood of new ideas, they squander what little strength left to them, 1/2

Peter Kropotkin: "[Revolutionaries] must not stand outside the people but among them, must serve not as a champion of some alien opinions worked out in isolation, but only as a more distinct, more complete expression of the demands of the people themselves."

David Graeber: “What if freedom were the ability to make up our minds about what it was we wished to pursue, with whom we wished to pursue it, and what sort of commitments we wish to make to them in the process?”

People blaming CNN for Biden's debate debacle have lost their minds. No amount of "fact checking" could make up for Biden being a walking corpse unable to string together a coherent sentence -- let alone present a viable political vision to oppose Trump's fascist fearmongering.

Lenin: "Democracy for an insignificant minority, democracy for the rich—that is the democracy of capitalist society. . . Marx grasped this essence of capitalist democracy splendidly when, in analyzing the experience of the Commune, he said that 1/2

In Nov 2020, I made a zine: "We Can't Push Biden Left: For An Autonomous Movement." Here's the text: Many on the left have beaten a consistent drum lately: elect Biden and then push him to the left. I understand the position and I did vote for Biden, if only to remove Trump. 1/

"Uncommitted" voters in the Dem primaries looking pretty smart right now.

Trump is destroying Biden, my god. Biden are you ok man? This is brutal. We're fucked.

As we repeat Biden vs. Trump it's worth revisiting my piece in @truthout.bsky.social from last year: "The liberal repudiation of fascism through the defense of electoral democracy and mainstream institutions is not enough to defeat the fascist menace. 1/ #Debates2024

Defending Democracy Through Elections Won’t Be Enough to Stop Fascismtruthout.org The left must present a radical alternative to both fascism and capitalist democracy.

Last election cycle we hosted debate watch parties to drink, heckle, and build community around imagining a better politics. Despite critiques of Bernie, it really felt like a potential breakthrough for the left. Now we're facing Biden vs Trump again, and goddamn it's depressing.

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Spencer Beswick

Thinking of Aaron Swartz and the miscarriage of justice in light of this announcement.

Nothing is sacred anymore.

🧵 On white punk "race traitors" White anarchist punks practiced a form of race traitor politics that exemplified both the merits and shortcomings of this political approach. Punks attempted to force the major institutions of white society to treat them as antagonists. 1/

I'm very grateful to have grown up without religion but sometimes I get so jealous of religious people. Like, how great would it be to just believe in god and heaven and have a built in religious community that helps give life meaning? What a trip.

My first time getting published in a book, and it's a rad one! My chapter is called "Smashing Whiteness: Race, Class, and Punk Culture in the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation (1989-1998)." Published in Europe by Active Distribution and available soon in the US via PM Press.

Mainstream coverage of academia this year was all about "wokeness," AI, and accusations of anti-semitism re: Palestine protests, but this is the real story underlying all else. Most people outside of academia have no idea the extent to which higher ed is contracting and crumbling.

Really love seeing how many old friends (from various periods of my life) are now becoming teachers. #RedForEd

"For us", said Durruti, "it is a matter of crushing Fascism once and for all. Yes; and in spite of the Government. No government in the world fights Fascism to the death. When the bourgeoisie sees power slipping from its grasp, it has recourse to Fascism to maintain itself."

David Graeber: “Everyday we wake up and collectively make a world together; but which one of us, left to our own devices, would ever decide they wanted to make a world like this one?”

Ursula Le Guin: “A child free from the guilt of ownership and the burden of economic competition will grow up with the will to do what needs doing and the capacity for joy in doing it. It is useless work that darkens the heart. 1/2

I've done dozens of oral history interviews with anarchists from older generations. What is their biggest lesson for today? The necessity of building durable institutions and organizations that can sustain movements beyond periods of social upheaval.

Grading papers clearly written by AI is so demoralizing. My strategy has been to point out the problems with the writing on its own terms (usually lack of specificity and engagement with course materials) rather than make accusations that are difficult to prove. But what a drag.