Recommended Reading

This is my personal list of texts and videos that I recommend for people to read. These texts and videos are not only ones I enjoy, but I have learned something from and each one has contributed to my Critical Self-Theory.

There is also a good amount of resources in here as they are handy tools for learning more or helping people get access to what we need and want.

Unfortunately, I can’t maintain this page as much as I would like to, so it is possible for links to go dead or resources on this page to become irrelevant or available over time.

As per the nature of Critical Self-Theory, not all of these texts, videos or resources I 100% agree with or believe to be 100% true, but from all of them I do take in, at varying levels depending on the text, video or resource, knowledge, points, ideas or counterarguments. Sometimes I will leave notes under an entry on this page to give a short, but clear idea of what I think, got out of the entry and/or what I think of the entry.

Introduction

Each of these are a text or video that I recommend for anyone who is a beginner to anarchism to read, though many of them do, not all of them are exactly set out to introduce you to anarchism

Resources (For Beginners)

  • Resource: The Anarchist Library
    • An archive of texts on anarchism. Very accessible website with many options to help with reading. Often times if you are looking for a text or texts on a particular topic, it will be on here
  • Resource: An Anarchist FAQ
    • Great resource for answering all types of questions. If you have a particular question or just want to hear what Anarcho might have said about a particular topic, then it is worth looking for it in The Anarchist FAQ. Makes great starting points for conversations or research (especially Critical Self-Theory inspired research)
  • Resource: AnarWiki
    • A new (as of writing this) wiki attempting to be a comprehensive encyclopaedia of anarchist concepts, history, literature, and people
  • Resource: AF2C (Anarchist Federation of Cyber Communes)
    • An effort to link existing and generate new organizations that operate according to anarchist principles. They offer many web-services that I believe are worth checking out

Theory, Praxis (Taking Action) and Philosophy

I used to keep the “Praxis (Taking Action)” and the “Theory and Philosophy” sections separate, but over time as I added more and more I wasn’t able to easily separate texts, videos and resources into these two categories, so it made more sense to push them together. I am not sure if it would be possible for me to keep the “Prefiguration” and “Confrontation” headings below as I might have the same issue as I did with “Praxis (Taking Action)” and “Theory and Philosophy”, but for now they stay.

Prefiguration

Mutual Aid

Organising

On Leadership, Guidance and Co-ordination

Movement Building, Platformism and Especifismo

Decision Making

Collective Decision Making

Care

Medicine and First Aid

Gardening, Horticulture, Farming and Agriculture

Critical Thinking and Critical Self-Theory

Cognitive Biases and Logical Fallacies
  • Resource: Your Logical Fallacy Is
    • Little interactive website that gives clear explanations of many logical fallacies
  • Resource: Your Bias Is
    • Little interactive website that gives clear explanations of many (cognitive) biases

Queerness, Gender and Transitioning

Voice Training

Relationships

Self-Relationship (The Relationship We Have With Ourself)
Interpersonal and Intimate Relationships
Relationship Anarchy
For Survivors and Those Who Have Been Harmed
For Perpetrators, Those Accused and Those Who Need To Take Responsibility and Accountability

Identity and Identity Politics

Confrontation

Labour, Syndicalism, and Taking Action at Work

Anti-Fascism

Protests

Know Your Rights

Technology

Fediverse (Federated Social Media)

There is quite a bit of links and resources in this section, which can be daunting, however the Fediverse is more simpler to understand and use then it seems. I recommend if you are interested but a complete beginner then to look at the first four links or even just the first one

  • Resource: What is fediverse?
    • Quick little guide website on what the Fediverse is and how it works
  • Resource: Fedi.Tips
    • An unofficial non-technical guide to using Mastodon and the wider Fediverse. Great for beginners
  • Resource: Fediverse.Party
    • Website to explore some of the main software used in the Fediverse. Great for beginners to the Fediverse who wants to quickly look at what the main platform options are
  • Resource: Fedi.Garden
    • A more easier and stress-free way of finding a fitting server and joining the Fediverse
  • Resource: FediDB
    • Website to track the growth and activity of the ActivityPub Fediverse. Can also be used to explore servers and find a fitting server for yourself
  • Resource: Fediverse Observer
    • Website that finds all server in the Fediverse and tries to gives you an easy way to find a server for yourself. Not the most user-friendly website, but it does work and has some good filters and ways of exploring and finding a fitting server for yourself
  • Resource: Join Fediverse Wiki
    • A Wikipedia-style encyclopedia dedicated to all things Fediverse. This wiki is more techincal and in-depth that some of these other resources, but it is a great resource for learning more in-depth about parts of and software used in the Fediverse
  • Resource: Awesome Fedivere List
    • A list of curated Fediverse resources
Hacking
Digital Piracy

Action For Palestine

Race

Indigenous Americans

Decolonisation and Anti-Imperialism

Egoism

Egoist Communism

Alternative and Radical Economics

Academic Disciplines

Sociology

  • Text: Chapter 1 of The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills

Social Analysis

Media, Social Media and Social Engineering

Education

Universities, Academia and Scholarship

Consumerism

Borders and Immigration

Geopolitics and History

Ireland

Housing

Palestine, Israel and Zionism

Eastern Europe/Post-Soviet/Slavic

  • Text: Destabilization of Russia as a way to freedom in Belarus by Prameń
    • Note: I mostly like this text and I agree with it’s conclusion, however, based off what I know from some other Eastern European and Slavic comrades (including those who belong to some ethnic minorities in Russia), a point has been made that Russia doesn’t necessarily have to broken up or “balkanised” and that it may be preferable for it to keep some type of federation or confederation structure that allows oblasts, areas and ethnic minorities to choose whether they want to leave or stay in this (con)federation structure, which, to me, maintains the idea of autonomy from the ground up

Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Turtle Island (North America)

Save Weelaynee/Stop Cop City/Defend The Atlanta Forest

South America

Chile

Salvador Allende, 1973 Chilean coup d’état and Augusto Pinochet

Miscellaneous

Solarpunk

Marxism

Interesting

This is a small section of texts and videos that I found interesting and/or fun to read or watch, but only contributed very little or nothing to my Critical Self-Theory