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A review by akemi_666
Rabble Rousers And Merry Pranksters: A History Of Anarchism In Aotearoa/New Zealand From The Mid 1950s To The Early 1980s by Toby Boraman
3.0
Nice wee overview of anarchist and anarchist-adjacent groups in Aotearoa, covering Leninists, Trotskyites, and Maoists; trad-anarchists, anarcho-syndicalists, and council communists; yippies, carnival anarchists, and situationists; and women's liberationists, pacific panthers, and Maori nationalists.
By covering so much territory it does feel more like a book of references towards other zines, pamphlets, and works. It's great for situating yourself within a lineage of sporadic upsurges of anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, and anti-work struggle, as well as learning from the flaws of individualist anarchism (often elitist and directionless), as well as bureaucratic communism (often joyless and dogmatic). It's light on theoretical details, though.
For example, I already support Maori nationalism because I understand it as a framework and movement for indigenous self-determination. Others, who've never come across the term, won't know what such a thing entails (it's not about deporting white people lol). This book won't clarify such things.
Another issue was its exceptionally brief look into struggles over gender and sexuality. This was very much a book about classical class struggle. No exploration of sex work and sex worker collectives. No dive into transgressive queer movements. Wages for housework gets mentioned, but there's little on the rich history of carnival politics in drag, etc. Surely if anarchists leaving a giant paper mache phallus in the middle of town called The General Erection gets mentioned, then sex workers masc/querading on stage as an exaggeration of their (often wealthy) male patrons should get mentioned too.
Anyway, fully support your libertarian socialism, Toby queen
By covering so much territory it does feel more like a book of references towards other zines, pamphlets, and works. It's great for situating yourself within a lineage of sporadic upsurges of anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, and anti-work struggle, as well as learning from the flaws of individualist anarchism (often elitist and directionless), as well as bureaucratic communism (often joyless and dogmatic). It's light on theoretical details, though.
For example, I already support Maori nationalism because I understand it as a framework and movement for indigenous self-determination. Others, who've never come across the term, won't know what such a thing entails (it's not about deporting white people lol). This book won't clarify such things.
Another issue was its exceptionally brief look into struggles over gender and sexuality. This was very much a book about classical class struggle. No exploration of sex work and sex worker collectives. No dive into transgressive queer movements. Wages for housework gets mentioned, but there's little on the rich history of carnival politics in drag, etc. Surely if anarchists leaving a giant paper mache phallus in the middle of town called The General Erection gets mentioned, then sex workers masc/querading on stage as an exaggeration of their (often wealthy) male patrons should get mentioned too.
Anyway, fully support your libertarian socialism, Toby queen