Anarchist Essays

In this essay, Alexander Sawatsky talks about his recent book, Anarchist perspectives for social work: Disrupting oppressive systems.  Along with a summary of the main topics and themes, he describes how he arrived at the idea of writing this book as well as his motivation to work towards an anarchist informed social work practice.

Alexander teaches and is chair of the social work program at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada where he lives with his partner, Wendi and his two children, Marianne and Lukas.  His most recent publications are the following:

Sawatsky, A. (2023) What is at the centre? Faith, social work & anarchism, Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 42:4, 477-495.

Sawatsky, A. (2024). Anarchism & social work. Critical Social Work.   Vol. 25, No. 1. 

Sawatsky, A. (2024) Anarchist Perspectives for Social Work: Disrupting Oppressive Systems. Oxford University Press.

Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro.

Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).

Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Leonard Williams reflects on the course of the 2024 presidential campaign in the United States. He then explores some implications of a second Trump presidency for both anarchists and anarchism.

Leonard Williams is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Manchester University in Indiana. His forthcoming book entitled Hybridity and Ideology was co-written with Benjamin Franks. Other recent publications include Black Blocks, White Squares: Crosswords with an Anarchist Edge and the edited volume, Anarchism: A Conceptual Analysis.

Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro.

Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).

Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Jim Donaghey reads an adaption from the introduction to DIY or Die! Do-it-yourself, do-it-together and punk anarchism – the latest volume in The Anarchism and Punk Book Project. The essay goes beyond and before punk to explore the radicality that runs through DIY, in its diverse applications from home improvement to anarchist political philosophy.

Jim Donaghey is a punk working in academia, currently as a Research Fellow at Ulster University. You can read his publications at his website.

Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro.

Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).

Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Alex Christoyannopoulos maps out and discusses the main qualms aired by anarchists about pacifism and nonviolence (around effectiveness, origins and compromises, and dogmatic censorship). He also fleshes out a rejoinder for each, and reflects on the mutual resonances and overlaps between the two. 

Alex Christoyannopoulos is Reader in Politics and International Relations at Loughborough University. His most recent publications include a contribution to a forum debate on Andreas Malm's How to Blow Up a Pipeline, a paper articulating an anarcho-pacifist reading of international relations, as well as two pieces he mentions in this essay: a longer paper mapping out the tensions and similarities between anarchism and pacifism, and the editorial to the founding issue of the Journal of Pacifism and Nonviolence. A fuller list of his publications is available on his website. 

Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro.

Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).

Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Jon Burke describes Qalang Smangus, an aboriginal village in Taiwan which has been collectively organized. Jon makes a case for identifying it as an intentional Christian anarcho-collectivist community, assesses its success, and identifies its internal and exernal challenges.

Jon is a former lecturer in photography and media studies at Ming Chuan University in Taiwan, and is currently a technical writer in Melbourne, Australia. His most recent publications are ‘Learning to love fakes: how to overcome the inauthenticity of digital artifacts’, for the 2023 conference Medievalisms on the Screen III: Digital Medievalisms and the Teaching of History, hosted by Central European University, and ‘Anarchitecture: Anarchist Principles Made Concrete for the Anarchist Studies Network 7th International Conference, 2022.’

Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro.

Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).

Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Jess Dillard-Wright and Danisha Jenkins make the case for an anarchist approach to nursing. Part love note to a problematic profession we love and hate, part fever dream of what could be, we set out to think about what nursing and care might look like after it all falls down, because it is all falling down.

Jess Dillard-Wright is an associate professor of nursing at Elaine Marieb College of Nursing at University of Massachusetts Amherst. You can learn more and find Jess’s contact information here. 

Danisha Jenkins is an assistant professor of nursing at San Diego State University. 

Jess and Danisha’s most recent publications are: 

Jenkins, D., Cohen, J., Walker, R., McMurray, P., & Dillard Wright, J. (2024). Getting Ours? “Girlbossing” and the Ethics of Nurse Reimbursement Models. Health Equity, 8(1), 480-492. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/heq.2024.0059 

Dillard-Wright, J., & Jenkins, D. (2024). Dangerous and Unprofessional Content: Anarchist Dreams for Alternate Nursing Futures. Philosophies, 9(1), 25. https://www.mdpi.com/2409-9287/9/1/25 

Dillard‐Wright, J., & Jenkins, D. (2024). Nursing as total institution. Nursing Philosophy, 25(1), e12460. https://doi.org/10.1111/nup.12460 

Out of the hospitals. Into the streets.

Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro.

Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).

Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Cahal McLaughlin reflects on the influence of anarchist principles on his documentary filmmaking practices in societies affected by state violence, using case studies from South Africa, Haiti, Brazil and Ireland.

Cahal McLaughlin is Professor of Film Studies, Queen's University Belfast. His recent publications include Challenging the Narrative: Documentary Film as Participatory Practice in Conflict Situations (Anthem Press, 2023) and We Fight For This Land: Quilombola and Ka'apor Communities in Brazil (2024, 62 mins). See more at www.itstayswithyou.com and www.prisonsmemoryarchive.com

Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro.

Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).

Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Henry Brown examines the controversial participation of anarchists in the Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War (1936-9). Despite the universal association of anarchism with antimilitarism, the Spanish anarchists responded to the demands of antifascist war in a nuanced fashion, creating a distinctive military subculture based on solidarity, comradeship, and clandestine political agitation.

Henry Brown is a PhD candidate at the University of Kent, examining military culture and identity in the Popular Army of the Spanish Republic (1936-9). His most recent publications include ‘The Anarchist in Uniform: The Militarisation of Anarchist Culture during the Spanish Civil War’ and his contribution to the Special Issue ‘Iberian Anarchism in Twentieth-Century History’: ‘“¡Vivan las tribus!”: persecution, resistance and anarchist agency in the Popular Army.’

Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro.

Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).

Artwork by Sam G.

In this essay, Alex Doyle examines how anarchists in late 19th and early 20th century Cuba grappled with thorny issues of the nation and nationalism in their pursuit of social revolution. Contrary to common assumptions about anarchism which posit that the movement wholly rejects and ignores the nation, the anarchists in Cuba, through their discourse and praxis, cultivated a critical engagement with the nation characterised by a fascinating mixture of compromise, support and rejection.

Alex Doyle is an independent researcher. He recently completed a Master's of Research at the University of Leeds with a focus on class, transnationalism and national identity within Cuban anarchism. His most recent publication is ‘Transnationalism, class and national identity in the Cuban labour movement (1898-1902)’. 

Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro.

Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).

In this essay, Diogo Duarte proposes a different look at the history of the State, urban planning and social housing in Portugal, by bringing into the picture the often forgotten presence of a significant anarchist movement in the country. As he suggests, to fully understand some of the social and political processes that were underway in Portugal during the first decades of the 20th century, it is essential to consider the threat that anarchism posed to the economic and political elites.

Diogo Duarte is a researcher at the Instituto de História Contemporânea (Institute of Contemporary History) in NOVA University Lisbon. He has a PhD in contemporary history with a thesis about the history of anarchism in Portugal and in 2024 he published the book "O Anarquismo e a Arte de Governar, Portugal (1890-1930)" (Edições Fora de Jogo). Recently he has also published the articles "Anarchism, colonialism and the question of "race" in Portugal (c.1890-1930)", in the Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies, and "'Um grito de alarme contra a degenerescência da espécie': Homosexuality and Decadence in the Anarchosyndicalist A Batalha in the Early 1920s", in Portuguese Studies, both co-written with Richard Cleminson. 

Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group and the journal Anarchist Studies. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro.

Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns).

Artwork by Sam G.