GMU:Thinking In Tanks/Rojin Safa

I'm doing my second bachelor in visual communication. My first was in polymer engineering , also I'm having a quite interesting academic journey. I come from Iran and it's my second semester in VC and in Germnay - Mentioning it because my background has had its part on shaping my worldview and my beliefs.

for many years I'd been apolitical, even though I come from a country where you just can't ignore politics. Politic and religion are highly connected in Iran and maybe that's why I was happy ignoring them both. Only now I know it was mainly because I was privileged enough (well, you know, with our standards. I was still a women living in Iran which is kinda fucked up) to afford not learning and selfish enough not to care. So I started relatively late to explore different ideas, different worldviews and really seeing everything that is wrong in my county and the world outside of it.

i don't like using labels.. but if you push me i'd say i'm anti capitalist and anti fascist.

In this class I'm mainly concentrating on learning about Anarchism and Anarcha-feminist.

Sources and inspirations so far:

Errico Malatesta - At the Cafe

Alexander Berkman - What Is Communist Anarchism?

https://www.youtube.com/user/anarchopac/videos (Anarcopac makes amazing and in depths videoes about anarchism and marxism theory and doing her phd on anarchism history.)

Anarchism and Feminism:

https://anarchiststudies.org/coming-to-terms-rethinking-popular-approaches-to-anarchism-and-feminism-by-theresa-warburton/

https://libcom.org/library/refusing-wait-anarchism-intersectionality

my very genuine propaganda text

Power loves darkness. It’s not a quote from a marvel movie. It’s a fact – and if you’re wondering where that comes from, you just need to take a look at people who are getting beaten up in the streets of America, this so-called heart of democracy, because they have dared to question the ever-growing structural abuse of power by the police. For they have done the unforgivable act of asking an unmentioble question that could cause the end of the world for many – those who would rather see the end of the world than the end of capitalism – “who are the police *really* protecting and serving?” who needs more protection than the minorities, the weak, the vulnerable – the very same people whom the police do not hesitate to kill in cold blood and in plain daylight, with no fear of the consequences. For it does not in the slightest bit interfere with their main function: to protect and serve the property and the wealthy, and to maintain the status quo. And so they will with teeth and nails fight to defend the capital and to enforce white supremacy. That’s what they were created for, with the absolute support of those in power. You can’t fool yourself into believing that by choosing the “lesser evil” things will change. “the lesser evil” being Joe Biden, the man who cheerfully says “police should be trained to ‘shoot 'em in the leg instead of the heart.” You can’t reform that. You can’t reform years of corruption, abuse of power and widespread injustices suffered by weak and marginalized into this neoliberal utopia where capitalists are living happily ever after alongside the workers, white supremacists alongside the people of colors, fascist alongside the minorities. You can’t reform what is working perfectly – because the system is not even broken. It is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.

So there is only one solution: revolution!

Class Project - Raising Free Children: an introduction

I spent the last semester reading about anarchism and the way anarchist tend, or ought to, approach subjects like feminism and intersectionalism. the Oxford Dictionary defines intersectionality as “the interconnected nature of social categorisations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage”. Somewhere along the way I found myself wondering, why are we always talking about “adults”? Let’s say we’ve come so far to understand how hard life on this wrecked of a planet is for an adult member of an oppressed group. Every kind of struggle that people of color, LGBTQ+ folks, disabled or poor people have to face every goddamn day – now imagine going through that being young. Are children an oppressed group? I would say yes. Because most of us – yes, so called leftists too - fail to include them as equal citizens. Fighting for a better tomorrow does mean fighting for children, hoping that we manage to make their future slightly happier and brighter than what we have. Which is you know, not particularly great. (I’m a woman of color from the middle east, so if you ask me “not great” wouldn’t do. It’s terrible. It's all darkness and horror and living in constant fear and all-devouring rage. But’s it’s a story for another day) Yet responsibilities do not end there. It’s as simple as that: Oppression is oppression. You can’t sugarcoat it. Can’t downplay it. Can’t justify it. Just because little humans rely on us in onr way or another does not give us the right to make decisions on their behalf, mold them to our liking or just postpone looking into their struggles to another time – because adults are talking now, kid. We’re too busy saving the world and abolishing capitalism. You’ll understand when you grow up.

This project is a little step in a direction that I deem both interesting and necessary and hopefully wouldn’t be the last one I take.

• Refrence List for the Project'

• (I)An-ok - Taking Children Seriously (TCS) and Anarchy

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/i-an-ok-taking-children-seriously-tcs-and-anarchy

• John Taylor Gatto - Against School

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/adam-fletcher-benjamin-fife-john-taylor-gatto-no-against-adult-supremacy-vol-4

• Matt Broomfield - Against Adult Supremacy: The Anti-Capitalist Case for Child Liberation

https://novaramedia.com/2018/02/20/against-adult-supremacy-the-anti-capitalist-case-for-child-liberation/

• Marc Silverstein - Anarchism and Youth Liberation

http://danawilliams2.tripod.com/aaarg/silverstein.pdf

• Anonymous - Why Not To Trust Your School

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anonymous-why-not-to-trust-your-school

Raising Free Children : an Introduction