anarchotoothbrushist

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27774832

Abdullah Öcalan (1947 - )

Fri Apr 04, 1947

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✱Although some records claim Öcalan was born on April 4th, Öcalan himself claims to not know the exact date of his birth other than knowing it was between 1946-1947.

Abdullah Öcalan, born on this day in 1947, is a socialist theorist, feminist, political prisoner, and one of the founders of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). His concept of "democratic confederalism" has been influential in Rojava.

Öcalan helped found the PKK in 1978, and led it into the Kurdish-Turkish conflict in 1984. For most of his leadership, he was based in Syria, which provided sanctuary to the PKK until the late 1990s.

After being forced to leave Syria, Öcalan was abducted in Nairobi in 1999 by the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) (with the support of the CIA) and taken to Turkey, where he was sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed organizations.

From prison, Öcalan has published several books, including "Prison Writings: The Roots of Civilisation", "Prison Writings Volume II: The PKK and the Kurdish Question in the 21st Century", and "Democratic Confederalism". Öcalan also advocates for a form of feminism known as "Jineology".

Öcalan's philosophy of democratic confederalism, which draws heavily from Murray Bookchin's concept of "communalism", is a strong influence on the political structures of Rojava, an autonomous polity formed in Syria in 2011.

"Without an analysis of women's status in the hierarchical system and the conditions under which she was enslaved, neither the state nor the class-based system that it rests upon can be understood."

- Abdullah Öcalan

• Date: 1947-04-04
• Learn More: web.archive.org, en.wikipedia.org, ocalanbooks.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27372186

Rudolf Rocker (1873 - 1958)

Tue Mar 25, 1873

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Johann Rudolf Rocker, born on this day in 1873, was an anarchist theorist, historian, and activist, known for critical anarchist texts such as "Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice" (1938) and "Pioneers of American Freedom" (1949).

Though often described as an anarcho-syndicalist, Rocker was a self-professed anarchist without adjectives, believing that anarchist schools of thought represented "only different methods of economy" and that the first objective for anarchists was "to secure the personal and social freedom of men".

Rocker was involved in helping organize a number of labor strikes and represented the federation at the International Anarchist Congress in Amsterdam in 1907. Rocker was well-read in his lifetime - his readers included figures Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein, Herbert Read, and Bertrand Russell.

"Anarchism is no patent solution for all human problems, no Utopia of a perfect social order, as it has so often been called, since on principle it rejects all absolute schemes and concepts."

- Rudolf Rocker

• Date: 1873-03-25
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org, theanarchistlibrary.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27372186

Rudolf Rocker (1873 - 1958)

Tue Mar 25, 1873

Image: **

Johann Rudolf Rocker, born on this day in 1873, was an anarchist theorist, historian, and activist, known for critical anarchist texts such as "Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice" (1938) and "Pioneers of American Freedom" (1949).

Though often described as an anarcho-syndicalist, Rocker was a self-professed anarchist without adjectives, believing that anarchist schools of thought represented "only different methods of economy" and that the first objective for anarchists was "to secure the personal and social freedom of men".

Rocker was involved in helping organize a number of labor strikes and represented the federation at the International Anarchist Congress in Amsterdam in 1907. Rocker was well-read in his lifetime - his readers included figures Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein, Herbert Read, and Bertrand Russell.

"Anarchism is no patent solution for all human problems, no Utopia of a perfect social order, as it has so often been called, since on principle it rejects all absolute schemes and concepts."

- Rudolf Rocker

• Date: 1873-03-25
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org, theanarchistlibrary.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24255628

Murray Bookchin (1921 - 2006)

Fri Jan 14, 1921

Murray Bookchin, born on this day in 1921, was a libertarian socialist political philosopher whose thought is associated with the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.

Bookchin was the author of two dozen books covering topics in politics, philosophy, history, urban planning, and social ecology. Some notable titles include "Our Synthetic Environment", "Post-Scarcity Anarchism", and "The Ecology of Freedom". In the late 1990s, he became disenchanted with what he saw as an increasingly apolitical "lifestylism" of the contemporary anarchist movement and stopped referring to himself as an anarchist.

Bookchin's ideas have influenced social movements since the 1960s, including the New Left, the anti-nuclear movement, the anti-globalization movement, Occupy Wall Street, and, most notably, Abdullah Öcalan's concept of democratic confederalism and its application in Rojava.

"If we do not do the impossible, we shall be faced with the unthinkable."

- Murray Bookchin

• Date: 1921-01-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, theanarchistlibrary.org, reason.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24255628

Murray Bookchin (1921 - 2006)

Fri Jan 14, 1921

Murray Bookchin, born on this day in 1921, was a libertarian socialist political philosopher whose thought is associated with the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.

Bookchin was the author of two dozen books covering topics in politics, philosophy, history, urban planning, and social ecology. Some notable titles include "Our Synthetic Environment", "Post-Scarcity Anarchism", and "The Ecology of Freedom". In the late 1990s, he became disenchanted with what he saw as an increasingly apolitical "lifestylism" of the contemporary anarchist movement and stopped referring to himself as an anarchist.

Bookchin's ideas have influenced social movements since the 1960s, including the New Left, the anti-nuclear movement, the anti-globalization movement, Occupy Wall Street, and, most notably, Abdullah Öcalan's concept of democratic confederalism and its application in Rojava.

"If we do not do the impossible, we shall be faced with the unthinkable."

- Murray Bookchin

• Date: 1921-01-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, theanarchistlibrary.org, reason.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23450335

Luigi Fabbri (1877 - 1935)

Sun Dec 23, 1877

Luigi Fabbri, born on this day in 1877, was an anarchist writer, theorist, and educator from Italy. Starting from the age of sixteen, Fabbri spent many years in prison for his anarchist activism.

Fabbri was a prolific contributor to the anarchist press in Europe and later South America, including co-editing, along with Errico Malatesta, the paper "L'Agitazione". In 1936, he published "Dictatorship and Revolution", an anarchist response to Vladimir Lenin's work "The State and Revolution". In his work "Marxism and Anarchism", Fabbri makes distinct the political philosophies of anarchism and Marxism.

In 1929, Fabbri fled Europe to Uruguay with his family before settling in Buenos Aires and continuing his writing with the anarchist newspaper "The Protest". He was also a journalist in the Rio Plata region, where he dealt with the political and trade union problems of the local workers' movement, in which there was a strong anarchist presence.

"But in politics, the winner is in the right, even if he is wrong: and whoever leaves the field comes off worse."

- Luigi Fabbri

• Date: 1877-12-23
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Birthdays, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/22937320

Peter Kropotkin (1842 - 1921)

Fri Dec 09, 1842

Pyotr Kropotkin, born on this day in 1842, was a Russian scientist, historian, and anarchist theorist, known for his writings on mutual aid and advocacy of anarcho-communism.

Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, he attended a military school and later served as an officer in Siberia, where he participated in several geological expeditions. He was imprisoned for his activism in 1874 and managed to escape two years later. He spent the next 41 years in exile in Switzerland, France (where he was imprisoned for almost four years) and in England.

While in exile, Kropotkin gave lectures and published widely on anarchism and geography. He returned to Russia after the Russian Revolution in 1917 but was disappointed by the Bolshevik state. Kropotkin's funeral was one of the last public demonstrations of anarchists in the USSR, with funeral marchers carrying anti-Bolshevik slogans and Emma Goldman delivering a speech.

Kropotkin was a proponent of a decentralized communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations of self-governing communities and worker-run enterprises. He wrote many books, pamphlets, and articles, the most prominent being "Fields, Factories and Workshops", "Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution", and "The Conquest of Bread".

"We must recognize, and loudly proclaim, that every one, whatever his grade in the old society, whether strong or weak, capable or incapable, as, before everything, THE RIGHT TO LIVE, and that society is bound to share amongst all, without exception, the means of existence at its disposal."

- Peter Kropotkin

• Date: 1842-12-09
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Birthdays, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/22488576

Free Territory of Ukraine (1917)

Tue Nov 27, 1917

Image: Two soldiers next to a Makhnovian flag, reading "Death to all who stand in the way of freedom for working people" in Cyrillic. Unknown date and location [Wikicommons]

Makhnovia, also known as the Free Territory of Ukraine, was an anarchist society established on this day in 1917 with the capture of the Ukrainian city of Huliaipole.

The Free Territory was an attempt to form a stateless anarchist society during the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917 to 1921, during which time "free soviets" and libertarian communes operated under the protection of Nestor Makhno's Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army (flag shown above).

As Makhnovia self-organized along anarchist principles, references to "control" and "government" were highly contentious. For example, the Makhnovists, often cited as a form of government (with Nestor Makhno as their "leader"), were ostensibly organized to serve in a purely military role, with Makhno himself functioning as more of a strategist than commander.

The economy of Makhnovia varied by region, from "market socialism" to anarcho-communism in character. Where money was used, production was often organized in the form of worker cooperatives.

The Bolsheviks were openly hostile to the Free Territory. On November 26th, 1920, less than two weeks after the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army assisted Bolshevik forces in defeating the White Army, Makhno's headquarters staff and many of his subordinate commanders were arrested at a Red Army planning conference to which they had been invited by Moscow, and executed.

Makhno himself fled the region several months later, settling in Paris, France.

• Date: 1917-11-27
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org, www.marxists.org.
• Tags: #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org