July 2021

Welcome! Newsletter number 7.

Almost everything comes to a standstill in Sweden during the summer, so perhaps it’s fitting that I don’t have all that much to report. However, the main reason is that I was busy finishing the German translation of the AngryWorkers‘ book Class Power on Zero-Hours. Now, finishing the translation doesn’t mean it’s coming out any time soon – there’s going to be proofing, layouting, etc. But in the spring of 2022, German readers can dig into what really is a fantastic book (which I’ve said several times before, but hey, no harm in saying it again).

Speaking of translations: the anarchist journal espero published the German translation of my essay “What Happened to the Anarchist Century?”. Espero has a curious history. At one time, the mouthpiece of Germany’s individual-anarchist scene, it has now been revived by a group of anarchist publishing veterans with more of a “synthesist” approach. The third issue of the new series impresses with no less than 316 pages – I guess that’s what you can do if you skip a print edition and offer downloadable PDFs instead – for free!

One more re translations: if you’re in Copenhagen, really fast and really keen, you could go to the July 1 launch of the Danish edition of my essay “Revolution Is More Than a Word: 23 Theses on Anarchism”. The great folks of Hydra Bøger invite you to the (in)famous Ungdomshuset.

I did manage to write the monthly review. It is titled “‘Neither Surrender Nor Hopelessness Are an Option'” and looks at Havin Guneser’s book The Art of Freedom: A Brief History of the Kurdish Liberation Struggle.

I wrote two articles on sports for junge Welt. One is an overview of Olympic Games boycotts in light of current calls for boycotting the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The other expresses frustration (disgust?) over the CEO of the Head Sport company being elected as the new president of the International Ski Federation (FIS).

I also wrote a junge Welt article about the current government crisis in Sweden. I assume there’ll be a couple more to come, as it’s a bit of a soap opera. What do you expect? Parliamentarism at its best/worst.

In any case, Swedish politics will be on my mind a lot over the coming months, as I will focus on writing the book Die Linke in Schweden (The Left in Germany), to be released by Vienna’s Mandelbaum Verlag at the end of the year.

Last but not least, June brought us “Anarchist Prisoner Day” (June 11). PM Press has an offer of buying books for prisoners at a 50 percent discount. You can find all of the relevant information, and numerous useful links to prisoner solidarity projects, here.

Stay safe!