Members of the Free Society Collective will be presenting at the National Confernece on Organized Resistance, on the weekend of February 3-5, 2006, at American University in Washington D.C.

The presentations include: Sustaining Revolutionary Politics in Nonrevolutionary Times; Anarchist History in the Present: “Maggots and Men” Film Pre-view Screening and Discussion; The New Anarchism; and, What's the Meaning of Protest, Anyway?.

During crisis events, people often show their most compassionate and even heroic sides. In Hurricane Katrina's disruption of every day life, most people in New Orleans have done the best they can to help each other. While decried as “looting” by the officials of order and private property, reports have shown that people neglected by rescue authorities are in many cases taking from the ravaged city's stores and distributing the goods equitably among fellow desperate people. Under police threats of “shoot to kill,” make no mistake that these are heroic acts – not crimes.

But moments of chaos and desperation are also moments when the most repugnant aspects of society, which may otherwise be hidden by the obscuring dazzle of every day life's drudgery, come into stark relief. Reports unsurprisingly indicate that gangs in the hurricane-ravaged New Orleans are taking the opportunity of lawlessness in New Orleans to hoard everything in sight, including firearms. But these small groups operated long before the hurricane hit the heavily impoverished city. The brutal rapes and killings this anti-social minority has been perpetrating on the people of New Orleans could have been anticipated and planned for. Indeed, what is most prominently outrageous in this disaster is the powers' that be crass disregard and indifference to the immediate and long-term needs of the people that have been affected by this disaster, especially those left behind in New Orleans.

Stepping back from the horrid immediacies this situation presents, we can discern two intimately connected aspects of our social reality that bear upon the disaster: First, we see the present market-based social and economic order where each must fend for him or herself without any background assurance that society will help when in need.

Second, we see that the relationship of this social order with its natural environment is one of dangerous ecological imbalance. These two aspects of our social reality are intimately connected, and as this disaster reveals with horrifying clarity, they exacerbate each other's effects.

Cosponsored by the Institute for Anarchist Studies
and Black Sheep Books

JACQUES RANCIERE AND RADICAL EQUALITY
Presenter: Todd May

French theorist Jacques Ranciere has promoted an idea
of politics as acting from the presumption of radical
equality -- a presumption most societies deny in their
actions if not in their words. His ideas intersect
with both anarchist theory and with the thought of
recent theorists like Michel Foucault. We will discuss
how Ranciere’s ideas might help us think through
political organization and political action. Each of
the three sessions will consider one chapter from
Ranciere’s 100-page "On the Shores of Politics" (it is
highly recommended that participants read chapters 2-4
in advance of this seminar).

Todd May is a professor of philosophy at Clemson
University. He has written on recent French thought,
including the intersection of anarchism and
poststructuralism, and is author of several books,
including "The Political Philosophy of
Poststructuralist Anarchism." Todd has also been
active in a variety of politics movements, in
particular the resistance to Israel's occupation of
Palestine.

DIALECTICAL THINKING IN PRACTICE:
A PARTICIPATORY READING OF HEGEL
Presenter: Peter Staudenmaier

Dialectical thinking has played a crucial role in the
analyses of modern society put forward by a range of
radical critics of capitalism and the state.
Anarchism's theoretical and practical profile can be
enriched by engaging with the formidable, but
rewarding tradition of dialectical thought. This study
seminar will focus squarely on a single text, the
notoriously challenging preface to Hegel's
"Phenomenology of Spirit" (in "Hegel: Texts and
Commentary," by Walter Kaufmann, University of Notre
Dame Press; participants are encouraged to read the
preface ahead of time). We will read the text together
and attempt to draw out the dialectical structure of
the argument it presents, while relating its insights
to our own experience. No prior knowledge of Hegel is
required, but a willingness to engage with
often-difficult philosophical writing is necessary.

Peter Staudenmaier has been in involved in anarchist
politics since the 1980s. He is currently a graduate
student at Cornell University, focusing on modern
European intellectual history. His perspective on
dialectical philosophy is strongly influenced by the
Frankfurt school and social ecology.

June and August seminars available. Registration open now!

The Free Society Collective’s (FSC) seminar series aims to provide an independent space for ongoing inquiries into social, political, cultural, economic, historical, and other fields of study from an anti-authoritarian left perspective. The seminar series draws on a variety of radical traditions, revolutionary histories, contemporary social movements, and social and political analyses, including anarchism, Western and autonomous marxisms, and other libertarian left tendencies. By exploring the past as well as the present, these weekend-long seminars are meant to deepen our understanding of dynamic social phenomena such as capitalism, statecraft, racism, gender, and the devastation of the natural world, to name a few. The seminars are also a way of reclaiming our own education and scholarship—by mentoring, learning from, and challenging each other in a highly participatory setting. And over time, it is the FSC’s hope that this seminar series will contribute to the development of public intellectuals, theoretical insights, and sophisticated forms of praxis as well as social organization in our struggle for a nonhierarchical, egalitarian society.

In the style of a Soviet Propaganda film Maggots and Men recounts the tragic events of the Kronstadt Uprising (Russia, 1921). This history is combined with fictionalized inter-personal relationships between the sailors. There is a strong emphasis on the filmmaking process to be a positive, affirming experience and an opportunity for people in the trans community to meet each other and work together. For the group scenes we will be recruiting large numbers of people, documenting as many trans folks on film as possible. Maggots and Men is set in all male environment of a Russian Naval Base then cast with actors from a range of masculine gender expressions, thus redefining male, challenging the binary gender construct,and intentionally creating confusion. This film comes out of an ongoing dialogue surrounding the hierarchy of "maleness" that exists and the longing for our genders to be inconsequential to our acceptance. We will bring these dialogues into the filmmaking process and together produce a film that makes a strong anti-war statement with the actors representing themselves as sexy, politicized, and beautiful heroes defending themselves against a corrupt government.

*Ace McArleton will appear in this upcoming film.

For more info on the film see the Maggots and Men homepage at http://homepage.mac.com/gowithflo/krondweb/kstills.html