Anarchist Pedagogies Collective

Sharing and Supporting Anarchist Ideas and Experiences

Image of a protest with people (whose faces are blurred) holding banners saying Stop Cop City and We Are All Forest Defenders.

Regarding Recent Events in Atlanta, GA: Stop Cop City and Defend Weelaunee Forest

20 January 2023 /

The following post is taken directly from the call for solidarity with the movement in South Atlanta, Georgia. We are reposting it in full and stand in support with all the activists who are working towards stopping the development of Cop City and have been defending the forest in whatever ways they can. You can share and endorse the statement here.

Other updates have been submitted to and posted by the Atlanta Community Press Collective, including the statement about the loss of Tortuguita. Our hearts are with you all.

In solidarity with the movement to Stop Cop City and Defend Weelaunee Forest

We call on all people of good conscience to stand in solidarity with the movement to stop Cop City and defend the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta.

On January 18, in the course of their latest militarized raid on the forest, police in Atlanta shot and killed a person. This is only the most recent of a series of violent police retaliations against the movement. The official narrative is that Cop City is necessary to make Atlanta “safe,” but this brutal killing reveals what they mean when they use that word.

Forests are the lungs of planet Earth. The destruction of forests affects all of us. So do the gentrification and police violence that the bulldozing of Weelaunee Forest would facilitate. What is happening in Atlanta is not a local issue.

Politicians who support Cop City have attempted to discredit forest defenders as “outside agitators.” This smear has a disgraceful history in the South, where authorities have used it against abolitionists, labor organizers, and the Civil Rights Movement, among others. The goal of those who spread this narrative is to discourage solidarity and isolate communities from each other while offering a pretext to bring in state and federal forces, who are the actual “outside agitators.” The consequence of that strategy is on full display in the tragedy of January 18.

Replacing a forest with a police training center will only create a more violently policed society, in which taxpayer resources enrich police and weapons companies rather than addressing social needs. Mass incarceration and police militarization have failed to bring down crime or improve conditions for poor and working-class communities.

In Atlanta and across the US, investment in police budgets comes at the expense of access to food, education, childcare, and healthcare, of affordable and stable housing, of parks and public spaces, of transit and the free movement of people, of economic stability for the many. Concentrating resources in the hands of police serves to defend the extreme accumulation of wealth and power by corporations and the very rich.

What do cops do with their increased budgets and their carte blanche from politicians? They kill people, every single day. They incarcerate and traumatize schoolchildren, parents, loved ones who are simply struggling to survive. We must not settle for a society organized recklessly upon the values of violence, racism, greed, and careless indifference to life.

The struggle that is playing out in Atlanta is a contest for the future. As the catastrophic effects of climate change hammer our communities with hurricanes, heat waves, and forest fires, the stakes of this contest are clearer than ever. It will determine whether those who come after us inherit an inhabitable Earth or a police state nightmare. It is up to us to create a peaceful society that does not treat human life as expendable.

The forest defenders are trying to create a better world for all of us. We owe it to the people of Atlanta and to future generations everywhere to support them.

Here are some ways to support the defense of the forest in Atlanta:

  • Donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund to support legal costs for arrested protestors and ongoing legal action.
  • Organize political solidarity bail funds, forest defense funds, and forest defense committees where you live.
  • Participate in or organize local solidarity actions.
Image for Smash the Class with a child smashing a teacher's desk, chalkboard, and clock. Says that episode 5 is out now!

Smash the Class, Episode 5: Discussing the Intersections Between Pedagogy and Therapy

11 December 2022 /

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In the fifth episode of Smash the Class, we were joined by Renya of Come Together Counseling. They’re an anarchist in Pennsylvania who conducts practice as a therapist and often talks about how their work in therapy intersects with anarchism.

During the time that we were talking with Renya, we discussed a whole range of topics. We originally wanted to do something together because we kept noticing a lot of the overlaps between therapy  and pedagogy. As a result, much of this conversation surrounds the intersections between the two, their relationship to anarchism, and how our learning spaces need to incorporate both. We also discuss our passive acceptance of authority figures, how we can work to overcome bureaucracy and its obstacles, and how our spaces can respond to the needs of the people in them.

Two videos that were the impetus for this were Renya’s videos on Internal vs External Motivation and Embodying Anarchist Principles as a Therapist. We also referenced a piece titled “How Can We Prefigure Society When We Only Seem to React.”

Hope you enjoy it!

Event banner reading "deSchool Revolt 2023." Features some images of people playing with shadow puppets, a paper on a typewriter reading "stories matter," and some kids sneakily reading books.

Attention! New (de)School Event for 2023!

9 December 2022 /

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

UPDATE: PARTICIPATION CALL EXTENDED  – 12 FEBRUARY 2023

Last year, we had a wonderful month of amazing events during the first ever School Revolt. We were genuinely really pleased with all the participation and for getting to know so many enriching educational projects.

However, we want to try something a little different this time. Instead of focusing on events (though there will be some of them!), we wanted to provide a space where people can create a range of stories told in a variety of ways for people of all ages.

In order to build the worlds that we want to see, we need to have time to explore the many different ways that it could be configured. Storytelling is one of the best ways to learn how things work while also giving us space to imagine what new realities we might create.

So for School Revolt 2023, the theme is Storytelling, Abolition, and Prefiguration. Everything this year will take place between February and April.

We invite everyone to share your stories of resistance, mutual care, radical love, community building, or any other topic you are burning to share. These stories can take many forms, including zines, books, poems, music, film, or any other medium you can think of. Together we will gather these stories and publish them for all to enjoy and learn from, with complete free access to anyone everywhere. You can take on this challenge on your own, or you can organise yourselves into collectives that share in the work. Any form of horizontal, non-hierarchical, and free form of self-organisation is highly encouraged.

There is no formal requirement to participate. Anyone is welcome regardless of academic degree, official title, expertise, geographic location, or language.

There is a zero tolerance policy for any forms of bigotry. Proposals and stories that veer too close to the possibility of being discriminatory in any form will first receive an email requesting clarification. Any projects that promote harm towards marginalised, oppressed and vulnerable communities will be rejected outright.

To apply, simply fill out the form below. Deadline for applications is 12 February 2023. People can sign up to create a story, provide a workshop to help others in their creation, or do both!

Participants are welcome to use whatever devices and any software that are needed to make their stories a reality. Should you require any kind of assistance or accommodations (including technical support or requests for workshop tutorials), you can indicate your needs in the registration form and we will do our best to make it happen.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send us an email at anarchapednet@riseup.net or contact us through any of our social media.

We are looking forward to seeing what ideas you come up with!

Love and Solidarity,

APC

Link to registration form: https://forms.gle/83e14WzA3v1ahoor

Regarding the Previous Cancellation of Our Event with Antiuniversity

26 September 2022 /

Originally, we had planned to hold an event with the Antiuniversity, Disability in Our Learning Spaces, on 16 September 2022.

And no, it wasn’t because the Queen died.

This topic is incredibly important to us, and it’s especially important to us that an event about disability in anarchist learning spaces is made more accessible for everyone who wants to participate. However, we realised that it would be difficult to make it properly accessible for participants, particularly any Deaf people who needed sign language interpreters. And this isn’t something that we wanted to do halfway.

After all, what’s the point of “nothing about us without us” if we’re not able to meet basic accommodations that people ask for? It felt hollow, especially when we already knew that many of the AI tools available (like built-in live transcriptions on Zoom) can actually make things more unclear because they’re notoriously awful for a range of accents.

So because we wanted to be able to properly meet the needs of people who were there and actually doing what we hoped the workshop could do—and it wasn’t possible—we decided to go ahead and cancel. Part of this is because we’re an international collective, and exactly none of us live in the UK. What this means for us is that we don’t have connections to people who would be willing to work with us to make it as accessible as it should be.

We’ll still be putting up part of a presentation that we’d planned (at a later date), and we’re going to go ahead with putting together the zine that would’ve been part of the event. And we very much want to have a range of conversations with people to talk about all kinds of disabilities, the impacts of how our spaces continue to exclude people when we should be open and inclusive, and how we can ensure that this happens in our radical spaces.

But that’s not all!

With this, we want to extend an invitation for people who want to help build a resource to meet the accessibility needs for our comrades: tools, people, and knowledge. This can include something as simple as helping to build a directory of sign language interpreters who want and are able to help during events to something as difficult as finding others with whom you can work directly to help build things that people need.

We talk a lot about accessibility, but it’s worth remembering: We cannot actively engage in anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and decolonial politics without ensuring that things are truly accessible. And to be truly accessible? These tools and services need to be free, otherwise they’re only available to those with the most resources.

So please reach out, share widely, and help us ensure that everything is as accessible and inclusive as possible. We either support everyone’s liberation or we continue reproducing the same oppression all over again.

Image of Smash the Class podcast. Features a child with a sledgehammer in the foreground, a smashed teacher's desk, green chalkboard, and clock in the background. Reads: "Episode 4 Out Now."

Smash the Class, Episode 4: Discussing Expertise and Authority in Our Learning (Part 1)

18 August 2022 /

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

It’s been a while, but we’ve put together our fourth episode of Smash the Class!

Sparked by our experiences with Joyful Resistance, we wanted to talk about how our understanding of expertise and authority can inhibit a lot of the conversations and learning that can take place within our various communities. As we hosted these meetings, which were meant to act more in line as either a support group or space to just meet with others interested in anarchist pedagogies, we kept noticing that a lot of people seemed to want one thing: experts. There was an expectation that these meetings would have an expert to tell us what to do.

This isn’t inherently bad! And we’re not intending to shame anyone because we get it. But we just noticed that people wanted experts to provide answers and solutions to something we haven’t quite figured out, especially because we all come from different cultural spaces and backgrounds. We’d hoped to create a space for people to find others to connect with in their development of anarchist pedagogies.

So in this episode, we spend time discussing concepts like being able to make mistakes and feeling comfortable with it, the problems around focusing on individualisation while neglecting collaboration, and the ways that learning is a lifelong process that we all need to keep going through.

We also reference quite a few different things that have been done, these include:

And if you want to check out the School Revolt playlist for 2022, everything is available here.

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