Anarchist Pedagogies Collective

Sharing and Supporting Anarchist Ideas and Experiences

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Regarding the Previous Cancellation of Our Event with Antiuniversity

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.

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

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.

Announcement: Becoming the Anarchist Pedagogies Collective

Since our first ever School Revolt Festival, we’ve decided to take a step back and do some internal learning. This learning has brought us to a conclusion that we are much more than a network and that our values were not articulated in a way we found inspiring.

And so, we are proud to share with you that the Anarchist Pedagogies Network is, from now on, the Anarchist Pedagogies Collective! This isn’t just a name change. It comes with a deep rethinking of our values and commitments. You can read more about those on our About Us page.

What does it mean for the future? The Anarchist Pedagogies Collective is still here for you. We are still committed to a kind of learning that is inclusive, revolutionary, and filled with love and care. We are still committed to abolition. We are still interested in making spaces that are for genuine mutual aid. 

We have many plans for the future, including more workshops, podcast episodes, and creative projects. But we also want to imagine a better world with you. Come talk to us, suggest your best ideas, and we can make them happen together!

Love and solidarity,
The APC

Smash the Class, School Revolt Special: A Q&A with James Khost

This recording comes from one of the events that was hosted during our School Revolt festival this year. It was hosted by James Khost. He’s a 15-year old student who is interested in filmmaking and editing. The documentary that he shared with us was a short experiential film about a day in the life of Brooklyn Apple Academy, which is part of the Flying Squads.

If you missed the event, this episode helps to put everything that was discussed together! You can also find James’s documentary on our YouTube channel. Though we’ve also included the audio from the video in this episode, we still highly recommend that you check out the film for the full experience. It’s genuinely enjoyable and a great look into the Flying Squads.

If you’re interested in more of James’s work, you can go to his website. You can also check out both Brooklyn Apple Academy and the Flying Squads for more information on homeschooling and self-directed education.

Smash the Class, School Revolt Special: Breakfast with Pelle and Daniel, featuring John from Working Class History

As part of School Revolt 2022, Daniel and his son Pelle gave a glimpse into their reading of the Working Class History book. This is the final episode in the week, and we wanted to shared this both on YouTube and as a special episode of the podcast. We also were so lucky that John from Working Class History was able to join them to round out the festival!

This is episode includes discussions about the Paris Commune, international’s women day, and the sit-in at the Ladies Home Journal, as they were the two entries for March 18 in the book.

You can find Working Class History here, and it’s definitely recommended to check the book out.

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