BLOGGING:

HERE AT MOLLY'S BLOG:

Every once in awhile it is necessary to pause and say what this blog is all about. Molly's Blog is basically an anarchist blog, but it can also expand at times to cover issues that are far removed from politics, anarchist or otherwise. The blog itself is named after a cat that I once owned, "Molly"-her of the "paw of doom". As to my own "anarchism" it can be summed up in the following:

1)I believe in an anarchism that is "gradualist" with all that implies, and I am not an advocate of "revolution" for many different reasons.

2)I believe that the "pathway towards anarchy" is being created every day by the struggles for freedom and justice on the part of ordinary people, and much of what I report here is concerned with such struggles. I believe that such struggles are anarchism in the modern world, and that ideological plans are secondary.

3)All that being said, I believe that "anarchism" is a philosophy that holds a set of moral criteria upon which various struggles should be judged. Does a given struggle advance justice and freedom or does it carry "unforeseen consequences" that would reduce the achievement of these goals if the struggle is successful ? The law of "unforeseen consequences" is pretty well universal in human history, but one has to judge any given event in terms of probabilities that are basically unpredictable in various degrees. Sometimes this is obvious. Political power for Maoists in say Nepal will lead inevitably to a worsening of living conditions for the Nepalese people unless "the Maoists can be corrupted". Sometimes it is less obvious. Is a social democratic/leftist government in Latin America and its actions opening a space for real popular power? In such situations I prefer to "err on the side of history" and my own anarchist comrades in such countries by criticizing the ruling class of such states.

4)Molly's anarchism is rather "catholic" in that it reports on and encourages all sorts of things that I am not necessarily in total agreement with. I do, however, draw a line. I do not encourage childish playacting at terrorism, from its most silly expression of minor vandalism to its grossest expression of "sympathy" with terrorists with goals that are totally opposed to the anarchist ideal. I, therefore, refuse to report items that are simply silly and childish(a lot of which come out of the USA), and I refuse to list links in this blog where such items are given equal priority with the real struggles of ordinary people. Thus, if you are looking for items about "green anarchy","insurrectionism", "post anarchism", "post leftism", "primitivism" or any other psychological cult I suggest you look elsewhere.

5)While my own anarchism may "seem" to be congruent with what has become referred to as "class struggle anarchism" there are differences. My own view of class structure in the modern world is considerably more complex than that held by most modern anarchists. Hence my reluctance to "sign up" with the best of modern class struggle anarchism. If I want to state it in its crudest form I believe that we no longer live under "capitalism". We presently live under managerial societies that have "some" capitalist" aspects. This opinion informs my own politics in many ways, not the least of which is my utter immunity to "third worldism" where a new ruling class struggles to attain power. This view of the world also informs some of my own attitudes to social questions here in the "developed world". Hence my opposition to that part of the working class whose product is "social control"- the social workers are the prime example. An anarchism that retains such enterprises is not worthy of the name "anarchist". Some of this may seem rather extreme. Most(almost all) people would be quite comfortable with a world without social workers. But few can imagine a world without the caste labelled as "teachers". The "anarchist project" also envisions a world where children are not jailed for 7 to 8 hours a day to facilitate work for the ruling class.

6)The languages of Molly's Blog are basically English and French. I do often translate items from Spanish, another language that I am quite familiar with. I believe that there there should be an "anarchist news aggregator" for Canada that would be totally(ie every post) bilingual in English and French. That is something for the future, and it is not the function of a site such as Molly's Blog. For myself I will continue with the format that I have devised. Items from Québec will be given in French first and then in English. Spanish items will be translated, and a reference to the Spanish original will be given. Regular readers of this board may realize that I have been long amiss over the "Enlaces en Espanol" section of my links. Please have patience as it will appear soon.

7)Before I close I would like to point out that Molly's Blog has the most extensive and complete links section of any site on the "anarcho-net" in terms of contacts. This is despite the efforts of some sites, where money is being made, to replicate a similar presentation .Yes, I'll make this claim here and now. I don't make a penny from what I do. What I have provided is much more complete than anything else on the internet, though I still have to put the Spanish language section on line. It very much focuses on Canada, but it is still much more complete than any American site in terms of their own country.