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–1 vote
A specific place on the web for anarchists to have discussions, etc.?
by

2 Answers

+3 votes
No, there is not a specific place, but there are many locations that could be of interest to you. As opposed to just posting some links as a comment, I thought I would provide some brief overviews of a few:

To start with the completely obvious: www.anarchy101.org, provides a great venue for anarchists and those with questions for anarchist to pose and answer general questions. It offers the opportunity to get many different perspectives on a particular topic, and the answer/comment dynamic allows for what is, to me, a really good way for folks to parse out differences without it becoming a flame war.

www.anarchistnews.org is a site with news and discussion of items of interest or pertaining to anarchists. The comments section is structured (or not) in a way that allows free flowing discussion. This format also allows for rampant trolling and sniping, but is still, in my estimation, the best online source for general anarchist (without adjectives) news, though when an editorial hand is felt, it seems to be of a generally post-leftist nature (a tendency shared with this site). They have forums that I've looked at but never much participated in, but that are also open to anonymous posts.

www.infoshopnews.org also has a news and forum section (as well as a link to the Flag! forums). The moderation and editorial voice of this site tend towards a leftist anarchist perspective, though when I went to look at it to make sure I didn’t misrepresent, it was down. Before I came to use Anarchist News, this was my primary go to place for online anarchist news. I’ve only used the forums a little bit (and quite a while ago), but as I recall, they were pretty heavily moderated.

www.libcom.org is a site geared towards a libertarian communist perspective (not necessarily strictly anarchist). Registration for commenting on and participating in forums is required, and I have never done so because 1. The discussion generally doesn’t seem like it comes from a perspective I will productively engage with in that particular venue, and 2. It is primarily based in the UK, and so, being based in North America, most of what I do find of interest there ends up on Anarchist News or A-Infos (which is a news feed and site, as opposed to a forum, somewhat eclipsed these days as far as usefulness, but still provides a lot of good international coverage – www.a-infos.ca).

Speaking of location, there are lots of more regional forums you might want to peruse, such as www.greycoastanarchists.org and www.pugetsoundanarchists.org. These tend towards region-speicifc news and discussion, meaning it might be of more interest to those focusing on news and events in that area. The volume of trolling and snark seems to correspond proportionally with that of Anarchist News.

The Anvil Review (www.theanvilreview.org) is not a forum, but the comments on pieces posted there are interesting and there is sometimes good discussion. The Anvil focuses on cultural criticism and reviews of both mainstream and anarchist media from an anarchist perspective.

Lastly, and I hesitate to even mentionit (as it is NOT anarchy as users of this site use the term), there is www.dailyanarchist.com, an anarcho-capitalist site. I have no comment on this other than that anarchism and capitalism are incompatible for reasons explored in other answers on this site (and just about every other one I've mentioned above). Perhaps this is a warning, or maybe I'm just being "fair and balanced"?

I know that I haven’t exhaustively covered what is out there, but I hope this helps you find what you are looking for. There are also lots of other email lists that might be of interest to you, depending on what you are looking for. Sites like www.riseup.net have a large list of such listserves, which vary widely in openness of membership and level of moderation.
by (22.1k points)
edited by
edited to reflect stuff I initially forgot to include in the rewrite.
Sad that an-caps got mentioned but not rewild.info for green anarchists.
ALC - Thanks! I knew there was a GA forum, but absolutely couldn't remember where, and didn't want to go the DGR route. I was afraid that all the anti-civ forums had lost their domains or something.
Does anyone know what happened to the Anvil review? The activity seems to have slowed down dramatically by the end of 2013...
it's still happening (they recently came out with number 5 in print), but as you say, the submissions have slowed a lot.

also, as the editorial says in the print version -- its goal hasn't been fulfilled, since it was supposed to be anarchists writing for non-anarchists about pop culture, and it's really not that hardly at all any more. but it's still a fun thing to read.
I have given out copies of the Anvil, and the people who have been most excited about having read it were not anarchists, but smart people who appreciate the critical analysis of society.
+1 vote
Psst! YOU'RE ON ONE RIGHT NOW.
by (1.6k points)
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