POG's Anarchist Speaker Series

Anarchism, in advocating a free society of free individuals, is perhaps the only political tradition that has consistently rooted out domination in its many forms, while also attempting to theorize and practice utopian alternatives. With its emphasis on an ethical prefigurative politics, anarchism holds out a directly democratic, egalitarian replacement for the hegemony of representative democracy and capitalism. It has thus contributed to diverse experiments in horizontal organization and nonhierarchical social relations, alongside or in solidarity with a variety of anti-authoritarian movements worldwide.

And for the first time in its own history, anarchism is all that much more relevant and even workable in this era, variously labeled the network society, the information age, or simply globalization. Yet in its very openness, this political philosophy and its praxis often defy any semblance of a definition, thereby linking widely disparate views and projects that conflict with and/or even contradict each other. Pittsburgh Organizing Group's anarchist speaker series exists to explore the question, what is anarchism? And how does it fit into the fight for freedom, dignity, and a better world?

The first year of the series is now complete. We will soon announce a series of speakers for 2010.

Audio from some participants in 2008:
Ashanti Alston: http://organizepittsburgh.org/resources/Alston_edit1.mp3
George Sossenko: http://organizepittsburgh.org/resources/Sossenko_edit1.mp3

The 2008 Anarchist Speakers Series brought the following speakers to Pittsburgh:

March 29: Cindy Milstein spoke on "Anarchism and its Aspirations" The talk surveyed anarchism's aspirations from its European beginnings during the Industrial Revolution to its reemergence as a postwar and especially contemporary phenomenon. It touched on the shared set of ethics that bind (most) anarchists, various schools of anarchist thought, how anarchism moves beyond the confines of its nineteenth-century origins, and what it might offer now in the struggle for a better world.

April 26: George Sossenko, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War spoke on Remembering Spain: Revolution and the Anarchist Ideal. At the age of 16, George left his parents and Paris behind to join the struggle in Spain. He is now one of the last two surviving members of the anarchist Durutti Column. He spoke about the anarchist social revolution, the creation of non-hierarchical militias fighting at the front, the collectivization of land by rural peasants, and the establishment of worker self-management of industrial Spain. He touched on his experiences at the Aragon front, with the Sebastian Faure unit of the International Brigades in the anarchist Durruti Column and his efforts continuing to fight the Nazi's in north Africa, Italy, and his native France alongside units of the “Free French” resistance until Germany’s defeat.

May 17: "Anarchist Panther" Ashanti Alston, a New York-based anarchist activist, speaker, and writer. Ashanti spoke on his history as a member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, what led him to anarchism, and how we might continue to collectively struggle for a new society. Having spent more than a decade in prison for his participation in revolutionary movements, Ashanti also touched on how prison abolition work fits into the fight for freedom and a better world.

May 24: Author and activist Wayne Price talked about his recently published book "The Abolition of the State: Anarchist and Marxist Perspectives", focusing on what the state is and what might replace it, followed by discussion on revolutionary choices.