The Future of Anarchism…47 Years Ago
The 15th Annual Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair happened two weeks ago. If you weren’t there, uh, you missed it. I was there. And one of my favorite things to do there, when I’m not standing behind a vast expanse of AK Press published and distroed books, is to browse other tables in search of old and out-of-print stuff.
I found the pickings a little slimmer than in previous years. Maybe I was being a little more selective. Maybe I hadn’t had enough coffee and my vision started blurring sooner than usual. However, at the Kate Sharpley Library table, I picked up enough yellowing copies of Anarchy (the UK journal edited by Colin Ward from 1961 to 1970) to keep me happy. I was particularly interested in a special issue on “The Future of Anarchism” (#28, June 1963). I looked forward to seeing what “the future” looked like forty-seven years ago. As is usually the case, I learned that it wasn’t much different than today’s future.
Anyway, to spread some of the geeky joy that makes the bookfair enjoyable to me, I scanned a couple of the articles. One, by Phillip Holgate, is a pretty humorous look at some anarchists’ tendency to embrace a “minority consciousness.” Though, I’m not sure how funny he considered the topic. The other, by the always insightful Colin Ward, provides a useful way of looking at the idea of “the future” itself. As you probably know, Colin passed away recently. Glimpses like this should remind all of us of what a loss that is.
You can check them out here.