The insurrectionary movement in Kabylia has adopted libertarian forms of organisation, principally through the Assembly Movement termed the ‘Arrouchs’. This movement challenges both the older tribal and village hierarchies, and threatens the authorities and the established political parties. It represents a possible agent for deeper social transformation in Algeria.

Anarcho-Punk: Local Scenes and International Networks

Alan O'Connor

This article is based on ethnographic research in the Mexican punk scene since 1994. It describes an international anarcho-punk gathering held near Mexico City. The article takes issue with postmodernist theories of mediascapes and cultural hybridity. A case is made for the continued relevance of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. The habitus of Mexican punk is described with special attention to food prepared at the gathering. The article continues traditions of reflexivity in anthropology and sociology from Michel Leiris and Bourdieu. Such reflexivity about the position of the researcher may point the way to a specifically anarchist practice of social research.

Empowering Anarchy: Power, Hegemony, and Anarchist Strategy

Tadzio Mueller

Beginning with the question: how should contemporary anarchists respond to the political challenges facing them, I examine the relation between anarchist practices and power. I draw on Gramsci’s concept of hegemony to suggest that an appropriate response to these challenges would be to construct an anarchist counter-hegemony. But how can a movement seemingly based on the rejection of power relations adopt a strategy premised on (counter)power? I argue that anarchist practices embody different understandings of power: one views power as external to human activity, the other one as decentralised and ubiquitous. I link this second view to post-structuralist analyses to show that power is necessarily productive, making counter-hegemony an acceptable strategy. Anarchism thus becomes (productive) power guided ethics, and I suggest that the ethics appropriate for an anarchist project would be an ethics of difference. Finally, I discuss anarchist projects embodying ideas similar to those developed in this essay.

Globalisation Versus Humanisation:Contemporary Anti-Capitalism and Anarchism

Karen Goaman

This article explores contemporary anarchistic elements of ‘anti-globalisation’ protest, with reference to the theme of humanisation versus globalisation. Humanisation as conceived here entails two main aspects. Firstly it aims to expose and delegitimise those humans directly responsible for managing the system of capitalist exploitation. Secondly demonstrators seek to oppose and block, physically, the processes of globalisation, for example at large economic summits. The physical presence of demonstrators is explored in its symbolic and sensuous elements, expressed through the carnivalesque and play of the Pink and Silver bloc and samba bands, now a feature of summit demonstrations internationally. Another theme that interweaves the article is the physical presence of protesters as human against machine. This is contrasted with the methods of state and non-state terrorism, which enact the reverse - machine against human.